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MEMORIAL 


OF 


JOHN    BOYLE    O'REILLY 


PRESS    OF 

/Municipal  Printing  ©fficc 

BOSTON 


'eL lir^l  k*L , 


AN    ACCOUNT 


OF    THE 


EXERCISES  AT  THE  DEDICATION 
AND  PRESENTATION 

TO  THE   CITY  OF  BOSTON 

OF   THE 

O'REILLY  MONUMENT 

JUNE  20,    1896 


BOSTON 

PRINTED   BY  ORDER  OF  THE  CITY   COUNCIL 

1  897 


. 


5&027 


MEMORIAL  MEETINGS 


Citg  of  Ronton. 


In  Common  Council,  April  1,  1897. 
Ordered,  That  the  clerk  of  Committees,  under  the  direc- 
tion of  the  Committee  on  Printing,  be  directed  to  prepare 
and  publish  an  edition  of  twenty-five  hundred  cloth  bound 
copies  of  a  volume  containing  an  account  of  the  memorial 
services  at  the  unveiling  and  presentation  to  the  city  of  the 
John  Boyle  O'Reilly  Monument,  the  expense  attending  the 
same  to  be  charged  to  the  appropriation  for  City  Council 
Incidental  Expenses. 

Passed.     Sent  up  for  concurrence. 

In  Board  of  Aldermen,  April  5,  1807. 
Concurred.      Approved  by  the  Mayor,  April  7,  1897. 

A  true  copy. 

Att. 

John  M.  (Calvin, 

City   Clerk. 


MEMORIAL  MEETINGS. 


The  citizens  of  Boston  wishing  to  give  some  adequate 
expression  to  the  sense  of  public  loss  sustained  in  the  death 
of  John  Boyle  O'Reilly  held  a  Memorial  Meeting  in 
Tremont  Temple  on  the  evening  of  Sept.  2,  1890.  So 
large  was  the  assemblage  that  thousands  were  unable  to 
obtain  admission  to  the  hall.  It  was  a  typical  gathering  of 
the  people  of  all  classes  whom  John  Boyle  O'Reilly  had 
loved  and  loyally  served. 

The  prominent  citizens  present  on  the  platform  included 
the  rectors  of  all  the  city  churches,  and  many  priests, —  per- 
sonal friends, — from  out  of  town.  There  were  also  the 
Presidents  of  the  St.  Botolph  Club,  the  Papyrus  Club,  the 
Catholic  Union,  the  Charitable  Irish  Society,  the  Boston 
Athletic  Association,  many  prominent  state  and  city  officials, 
and  representative  citizens. 

Mayor  Thomas  N".  Halt,  called  the  meeting  to  order  and 
presented  the  Chairman,  Hon.  Charles  Levi  Woodbury, 
who  opened  the  meeting  with  a  touching  and  eloquent  ad- 
dress. Notable  speeches  followed  by  the  Rt.  Rev.  William 
Byrne,  D.D.,  V.C.,  Col.  Charles  II.  Taylor,  Gen.  B.  F. 
Butler,  Col.  Thomas  Wentworth  Higginson,  President  E.  H. 
Capen,  of  Tuft's  College,  Mr.  Edwin  G.  Walker,  and  Hon. 
P.  A.  Collins. 

Mr.  Henry  M.  Rogers  then  introduced  the  following 
resolutions  :  — 

"The  citizens  of  Boston,  in  tender  memory  of  their  fellow- 
citizen,  John    Boyle  O'Reilly,  and  in  recognition  of  the 


10  MEMORIAL    OF    JOTTX    BOYLE    O'REILLY. 

loss  they  have  sustained,  have  assembled  on  this  2d  day  of 
September,  1890,  to  give  expression  to  their  appreciation  of 
his  character. 

"  They  are  grateful,  first  of  all,  that  he  was  their  fellow- 
citizen  ;  that  he  was  one  with  them  in  thought  and  feeling ; 
that  he  strove  with  them  for  the  welfare  and  prosperity  of 
the  City  of  Boston,  which  he  loved  as  they  love  it. 

"Holding  no  public  office,  and  wishing  none,  he  exemplified 
the  influence  of  the  good  citizen,  who  is  earnest  in  well-doing, 
and  who  is  actuated  only  by  the  desire  to  serve  his  kind. 
His  loss  to  this  city  will  be  felt  in  every  good  work,  in  every 
field  of  usefulness. 

"While  they  recognize  their  loss  of  his  association  with 
them  as  a  fellow-citizen  and  friend,  they  fully  appreciate 
that  lie  was  a  man  of  too  wide  sympathies  and  too  generous 
humanity  to  be  restricted  within  the  limits  of  any  city.  As 
a  patriot,  he  had  suffered  for  the  country  of  his  birth,  and  so 
lovers  of  liberty  throughout  the  world  hail  him  and  claim 
him  as  their  brother. 

"As  a  poet,  he  had  sung  songs  that  had  won  the  hearts  of 
men  and  turned  their  thoughts  upward,  always  toward  a 
higher  reach  for  humanity,  and  the  sick,  the  suffering  and 
the  oppressed,  the  down-trodden,  and  those  who  had  grown 
faint  hearted,  took  new  life  and  new  courage  from  his  words, 
and  to-day  claim  their  brotherhood  with  him. 

"  As  an  orator,  who  found  his  eloquence  in  his  own  heart, 
and  who  poured  it  out  because  of  the  deep  well  from  which 
his  inspiration  was  drawn,  he  is  claimed  by  all  champions  of 
humanity,  by  all  lovers  of  their  kind. 

"As  a-  journalist,  strong  in  his  own  convictions,  yet  recog- 
nizing that  not  what  a  man  says,  but  what  he  is,  is  the  true 
test,  he  drew  nearer  and  nearer,  as  his  years  went  on,  to  that 
broadest  plane,  where  duty  to  his  God  and  to  his  fellow-men, 


MEMORIAL    MEETING.  11 

not  pride  of  opinion,  nor  pride  of  statement,  takes  the  first 
place.  His  fellow-journalists  saw  this,  and  they  too  claim 
kindred  with  him. 

"As  a  man,  lie  strove  for  humanity  with  earnest  and  unfal- 
tering trust,  believing  that  out  of  his  manhood  man's 
redemption  out  of  God  would  come. 

"And  so  in  the  minds  of  his  fellow-citizens  he  stands  as  the 
type  of  young,  strong,  vigorous  manhood,  —  an  inspiration 
and  an  encouragement. 

"  Wherever  man  recognizes  manhood,  wherever  doubt  and 
distrust  come  between  man  and  his  ideal,  the  enthusiasm,  the 
virility  and  the  faith  of  John  Boyle  O'Reilly  in  his  fellow- 
man  may  be  remembered,  and  doubt  and  distrust  will  give 
way,  and  man  everywhere  lay  claim  to  him. 

"  His  fellow-citizens  in  loving  remembrance  bear  testimony 
to  his  worth,  and  record  their  admiration  for  his  character." 

The  immense  meeting  was  then  closed  by  the  unanimous 
adoption  of  the  following  resolution,  the  motion  being  made 
by  Hon.  Thomas  J.  Gargan.  "Resolved:  That  Col. 
Charles  H.  Taylor,  President  of  the  Press  Club,  Gen.  Francis 
A.  Walker,  President  of  St.  Botolph  Club,  Robert  F.  Clark, 
President  of  the  Boston  Athletic  Association,  James  Jeffrey 
Roche,  President  of  the  Papyrus  Club,  Thomas  B.  Fitz- 
patrick,  president  of  the  Catholic  Union,  Gen.  Michael  T. 
Donahue,  President  of  the  Charitable  Irish  Society,  the  Very 
Rev.  William  Byrne,  V.G.,  Mr.  Arthur  H.  Dodd,  Mr. 
Edgar  Parker,  Mr.  Asa  P.  Potter,  Mr.  A.  Shuman,  Mr. 
Richard  F.  Tobin,  Mr.  Edward  A.  Moseley,  Dr.  James  A. 
McDonald,  Mr.  Harry  A.  McGlenen,  Dr.  Francis  A.  Harris, 
Mr.  John  J.  Hayes,  Hon.  Charles  Levi  Woodbury,  Hon. 
Thomas  J.  Gargan  and  Hon.  P.  A.  Collins,  be  appointed  a 
Committee,  with  full  power  to  receive  all  subscriptions  that 
may  be  offered  and  use  the  same  in  the  erection  of  a  public 


12  MEMORIAL    OF    JOHN    BOYLE    O'REILLY. 

Memorial  or  Memorials,  in  honor  of  the  late  John  Boyle 
O'Reilly;  said  Committee  may  have  power  to  add  to  their 
number  and  fill  all  vacancies." 

Following  the  example  of  the  great  Boston  meeting,  large 
memorial  meetings  were  held  all  over  the  country  in  such 
cities  as  Providence,  R.I. ;  Chicago,  111. ;  Lawrence,  Mass. ; 
Manchester,  N.H.  ;  Medford,  Mass. ;  Westboro,  Mass.  ; 
Worcester,  Mass. ;  Milford,  Mass.  ;  Omaha,  Neb. ;  Boston, 
Mass. ;  Lowell,  Mass.  ;  New  York  City  ;  Lewis  ton,  Me. ; 
South  Boston,  Mass. ;  Cambridge,  Mass. ;  Waltham,  Mass.  ; 
Washington,  D.C. ;  Watertown,  Mass.;  Ovid,  N.Y. ;  Mid- 
dletown,  Conn. ;  New  Bedford,  Mass. ;  Natick,  Mass. 

The  memorial  meeting  in  Worcester  on  August  26  was 
a  notable  gathering.  Mechanics  Hall  was  filled  to  its 
utmost  limit.  Rt.  Rev.  Mgr.  Griffin,  the  chairman, 
opened  the  meeting,  and  after  reading  a  letter  from  Sen- 
ator George  F.  Hoar,  introduced  the  Hon.  John  E.  Russell, 
Avho  made  an  impressive  address,  followed  by  a  generous 
tribute  from  the  Rev.  W.  H.  Thomas.  Dr.  Thomas  J. 
Conaty  delivered  a  brilliant  oration,  which  moved  the  great 
audience  to  enthusiasm.  He  was  followed  by  Col.  W.  S. 
B.  Hopkins,  and  the  meeting  closed  with  resolutions  simi- 
lar to  those  of  the  Boston  meeting. 

At  a  similar  meeting  in  Lowell,  on  September  7,  Mayor 
Palmer  presided,  and  Governor  Brackett,  General  Butler, 
Philip  J.  Farley  and  Rev.  D.  M.   Burns   made  addresses. 

In  New  York,  on  September  8,  a  vast  audience  filled 
the  Metropolitan  Opera  House,  —  a  grand  outpouring  of 
the  sympathies  of  the  people  who  mourned  the  loss  of  a 
man  of  genius.  Ex-Judge  Edward  Brown  introduced  the 
presiding  officer,  Gov.  David  B.  Hill,  whose  opening 
address  was  followed  by  a  masterly  oration  by  Judge 
James  Fitzgerald.  General  O'Beirne  offered  the  resolutions 
which  closed  the  meeting. 


MEMORIAL    MEETING.  13 

These  meetings  were  simple  and  spontaneous  outbursts 
of  affection  and  grief  in  honor  of  the  dead  poet.  And  as 
the  Boston  meeting  had  closed  with  a  resolution  asking 
for  subscriptions  to  a  public  memorial  to  be  erected  to 
his  memory,  so  many  of  these  meetings  were  closed  with 
a  similar  resolution. 

The  result  both  in  Boston  and  elsewhere  showed  itself 
in  the  splendid  popular  subscriptions  which  followed  and 
continued  to  flow  in  at  the  call  of  the  Boston  committee 
until  the  grand  memorial  in  Boston  was  finally  erected. 

In  Boston  the  first  meeting  of  the  committee  appointed 
at  the  Boston  memorial  gathering  in  Tremont  Temple 
was  held  on  Sept.  15,  1890,  in  the  Parker  House.  The 
names  of  Mr.  George  H.  Babbitt,  Rev.  Richard  Neagle, 
and  Mr.  Dominick  Toy  were  unanimously  added  to  the 
committee.  Gen.  Francis  A.  Walker  was  elected  chair- 
man, Gen.  M.  T.  Donahue,  secretary,  and  Mr.  Asa  Potter, 
treasurer.  The  following  subscription  call  was  drawn  up 
and  adopted:  — 

To   the   Fublic:  — 

The  undersigned,  appointed  at  the  public  meeting  held  at 
Tremont  Temple,  Boston,  September  2,  a  committee  to  collect 
funds  for  a  suitable  memorial,  or  memorials,  to  the  memory 
of  the  Late  John  Boyle  O'Reilly,  respectfully  solicit  contri- 
butions for  that  purpose,  and  request  that  all  moneys  sub- 
scribed, or  to  be  subscribed,  in  any  quarter,  be  forwarded  to 
the  treasurer  of  the  committee.  The  form  of  the  memorial 
will  not  be  decided  for  the  present.  It  will  depend  largely 
upon  the  amount  of  the  subscriptions,  and  will  be  determined 
only  after  fully  weighing  and  judging  all  suggestions  from 
subscribers  and  others.  It  is  our  desire  that  the  service  im- 
posed upon  us  be  prosecuted  as  speedily  as  possible,  and  we 
therefore  request  that  all  subscriptions  be  forwarded  at  once 
to  Asa  P.  Potter,  president  Maverick  Bank,  treasurer. 


14  MEMORIAL    OF    JOHN    BOYLE    O'REILLY . 

Signed,  Col.  Charles  H.  Taylor,  Gen.  Francis  A.  Walker, 
Robert  Clark,  James  Jeffrey  Roche,  Thomas  B.  Fitzpatrick, 
G-en.  M.  T.  Donahue,  Rev.  William  Byrne,  Arthur  H.  Dodd, 
Edgar  Parker,  Asa  P.  Potter,  A.  Shaman,  Richard  F.  Tobin, 
Edward  A.  Moseley,  Dr.  J.  A.  McDonald,  Harry  A.  Mc- 
Grlenen,  Dr.  Francis  A.  Harris,  John  J.  Hayes,  George  F. 
Babbitt,  Dominick  Toy,  Rev.  Richard  Nagle,  Hon.  Charles 
Levi  Woodbury,  Gen.  Patrick  A.  Collins  and  Hon.  T.  J. 
Gargan. 

Before  this  public  call  had  been  made,  however,  many 
contributions  bad  been  received.  From  this  time  on,  con- 
tributions poured  in,  ranging  from  50  cents  to  $500,  com- 
ing from  all  classes  and  conditions  of  people. 

From  every  State  of  the  Union,  from  Ireland,  the  Brit- 
ish Provinces,  Australia,  from  well  nigli  every  known 
country  money  was  received. 

One  of  the  most  significant  and  touching  contributions 
to  the  memorial  was  the  $5.35  forwarded  by  the  children 
of  the  Colored  Industrial  School  of  Pine  Bluff,  Arkansas. 

It  was  pre-eminently  a  popular  subscription  and  it 
maintained  this  character  until  the  subscription  lists  were 
closed. 

Gen.  Francis  A.  Walker  presided  at  the  meeting  of  the 
memorial  committee,  Oct.  16,  1890,  Gen.  M.  T.  Donahue 
acting  as  secretary.  On  that  date  there  was  about  $5,000 
in  the  hands  of  Treas.  Asa  P.  Potter. 

By  Nov.  8,  1890,  the  fund  had  passed  the  $10,000 
mark.  By  the  1st  of  May,  1891,  it  had  reached  the  sum 
of  $15,000. 

What  form  the  memorial  should  take  called  forth  much 
discussion.  Many  were  in  favor  of  an  alcove  in  the  Pub- 
lic Library  devoted  to  Celtic  literature,  and  called  by 
John  Boyle  O'Reilly's  name.      Others  proposed  a  rural 


MEMORIAL    MEETING.  15 

home  for  destitute  Catholic  children ;  but  the  great  major- 
ity of  the  subscribers  demanded  a  public  monument,  and 
gave  their  contributions  for  a  "  Statue  fund "  long  before 
the  committee  had  reached  a  decision.  A  statue  in  some 
public  place  in  Boston,  a  place  open  to  all,  seemed  most 
becoming  as  an  expression  of  the  love  of  all. 

Finally  at  a  meeting  of  the  Memorial  Committee  on  Oct. 
6,  1890,  the  following  resolution  was  adopted: 

44  Resolved :  That  it  is  the  desire  of  this  Committee  to 
commemorate  the  life  of  John  Boyle  O'Reilly  by  the 
erection  of  a  statue,  or  other  monument,  in  some  public  place 
in  the  City  of  Boston,  and  by  furnishing  an  alcove  in  the 
Boston  Public  Library  ;  that  for  these  objects  we  propose  to 
raise  the  required  fund." 

Letters  from  friends  in  various  parts  of  the  country,  ten- 
dering assistance  and  support,  were  read  at  the  Parker  House 
meeting  of  the  Memorial  Committee,  Nov.  11,  1890. 

By  July  11,  1891,  the  fund  had  amounted  to  115,805.40. 

All  was  going  well  with  the  fund  and  popular  subscrip- 
tions were  pouring  in  rapidly,  when  the  announcement  was 
made,  early  in  November,  1891,  that  the  Maverick  Bank  of 
which  Asa  P.  Potter  was  president,  and  where  the  Fund 
was  deposited,  had  failed.  The  Pilot  of  Nov.  7,  1891,  con- 
tained the  following  editorial  article  in  relation  to  this 
failure :  — 

The  Maverick  National  Bank  of  Boston,  one  of  the  best  known 
financial  institutions  in  the  country,  closed  its  doors  last  Saturday 
with  liabilities  of  two  millions  in  excess  of  its  assets.  This  fact 
has  a  painful  interest  for  our  readers,  because  the  Maverick  Bank 
was  the  depository  of  the  John  Boyle  O'Reilly  Memorial  Fund, 
to  the  amount  of  about  $17,000.  The  failure  may  entail  a  loss 
of  three  or  four  thousand  dollars  of  the  fund. 


16  MEMORIAL    OF    JOHN    BOYLE    O'REILLY. 

The  Committee  will  at  once  choose  responsible  trustees  to 
transfer  the  deposit  to  safe  hands,  and  arrange  for  beginning 
work  on  a  suitable  memorial. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  O'Reilly  Memorial  Committee  im- 
mediately following  the  failure  of  the  Maverick  Bank,  Mr. 
A.  S human  was  elected  Treasurer,  and  Mr.  A.  Shuman,  Mr. 
T.  B.  Fitzpatrick,  and  Gen.  P.  A.  Collins  were  elected  Trus- 
tees of  the  Fund. 

From  the  time  that  the  trust  fund  was  placed  in  the 
hands  of  these  three  trustees,  a  new  life  was  infused  into 
the  movement.  Every  exertion  that  could  be  made  in 
behalf  of  the  fund  was  put  into  operation,  not  only  to 
supply  the  loss  occasioned  by  the  failure  of  the  Maverick 
Bank,  but  also  to  bring  the  fund  up  to  the  required  mark 
of  at  least  #22,000. 

By  April  16,  1892,  the  fund  had  again  reached  over 
$19,000,  and  at  the  suggestion  of  Mr.  A.  Shuman  a  move- 
ment was  at  that  time  set  on  foot  for  the  giving  of  a 
concert  in  Boston  Theatre  in  aid  of  the  memorial. 

On  Sunday  evening  of  May  29,  1892,  this  concert  was 
held  in  Boston  Theatre,  (donated  by  Mr.  Eugene  Tompkins 
for  the  occasion).  It  resulted  in  making  the  fund  richer 
by  the  sum  of  #3,000,  and  the  full  amount  needed  for  the 
memorial  fund  was  obtained. 

This  signal  success  was  largely  due  to  the  efforts  of 
Mr.  A.  Shuman,  Mr.  Alexander  Steinert,  Mr.  T.  B.  Fitz- 
patrick, Mr.  James  Jeffrey  Roche,  Mr.  Harry  A.  McGlenen, 
Mr.  John  A.  O'Shea,  and  also  to  the  artists  who  volun- 
teered their  services. 

With  the  completion  of  the  fund  the  Committee  accepted 
for  the  O'Reilly  Memorial  the  model  submitted  fey  Daniel 
Chester  French,  and  a  site  and  a  foundation  for  the  memorial 
was  granted  by  the  City  of  Boston  in  the  Back  Bay  Fens. 


££ 


OPENING     EXERCISES 


AT    THE 


John  Boyle  O'Reilly  Memorial 
Dedication 


JUNE    20,     1896 


'// 


OPENING   EXERCISES. 


REMARKS    BY    MR.    A.    SHUMAN. 

We  are  gathered  here  to-day  to  dedicate  a  monu- 
ment to  John  Boyle  O'Reilly, —  patriot,  poet, 
nature's  nobleman, —  a  man  who  possessed  within 
himself  those  attributes  which  enabled  him  to  uplift 
his  brother  men, —  a  heart  warm  and  glowing ;  a 
brain  sympathetic  and  forceful ;  a  mind  pure  and 
undefiled  ;  a  sunshiny  spirit  which  radiated  harmoni- 
ous influences ;  a  true  character ;  a  rare  type  of 
earnest  manhood. 

It  is  my  duty  as  Chairman  of  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee to  announce,  for  the  General  Committee,  the 
completion  of  their  work  in  the  building  of  the 
John  Boyle  O'Reilly  Memorial.  These  exercises 
to-day  mean  to  it  a  rendering  of  an  account  of  its 
stewardship  to  the  community,  who  have  so  spon- 
taneously contributed  to  the  building  fund. 

The  Committee  witnesses  to-day  with  unbounded 
pleasure  the  culmination  of  its  six  years  of  contin- 
uous, loving  labor,  which  now  enables  it  to  relin- 
quish the  work  which  has  resulted  in  this  artistic 
and  beautiful  creation  of  the  sculptor's  skill,  —  a 
magnificent  monument,  which  silently  and  majesti- 
cally throughout  the  years  to  come,  will  chronicle 
the  life  of  one  whom  we  meet  to-day  to  honor. 


20  MEMORIAL    OF    JOHN    BOYLE    O'REILLY. 

The  great  public  and  the  friends  of  the  lamented 
O'Reilly,  by  popular  subscription,  have  generously 
given  of  their  means  to  help  establish  this  testi- 
monial to  the  place  he  ever  held,  and  always  will 
hold  in  their  hearts. 

The  money  contributed  has  come  from  the  rich 
and  the  poor  alike  who  loved  O'Reilly  while  living, 
and  forgot  not  his  memory  when  dead.  It  is  a 
tribute  from  the  whole  people,  irrespective  of  race 
or  creed,  in  recognition  of  the  manly  worth  and  the 
broad  American  spirit  which  characterized  the  life  of 
John  Boyle  O'Reilly.  The  monument  will  stand 
as  a  reminder  to  future  generations  that  our  free 
land  recognizes  the  worth  of  her  people,  no  matter 
under  what  sky  they  may  first  see  the  light,  if  they 
be  but  true  to  her. 

It  will  constantly  teach  the  lesson  of  sincere  and 
steadfast  patriotism,  speaking  as  it  will  in  every  line 
and  proportion,  the  words  of  O'Reilly, — 

"The  work  men  do  is  not  their  test  alone; 
The  love  they  win  is  far  the  better  chart." 

It  now  devolves  upon  me  to  perform  the  closing 
duty  of  my  office, —  that  of  presenting  the  presiding 
officer.  He  is  a  brave  and  valiant  soldier,  and  has 
won  distinction  on  the  field  of  battle  in  defence  of 
our  common  country.  His  reputation  is  not  confined 
to  the  limits  of  our  own  land ;  he  is  known, 
honored  and  respected  in  many.  When  we  picture 
in  our  minds  the  soldier,  accomplished  scholar  and 
true  American   citizen,   we  turn  to   one  who  in  him- 


MEMORIAL    SERVICES.  21 

self,  combines  together  these  attributes,  a  man 
whose  name  stands  among  the  highest  on  the  roll 
of  Boston's  most  eminent  men  —  Gen.  Francis  A. 
Walker. 

address  of  gen.  francis  a.  walker. 

Gen.   Francis   A.  Walker,  chairman  of  the  committee, 

said:  — 

We  are  assembled  without  distinction  of  race,  creed 
or  party,  to  set  up,  here  in  the  public  parks  of 
Boston,  a  lasting  memorial  to  one  whom  Boston  has 
long  delighted  to  honor. 

The  strong  and  masterful,  yet  gracious,  tender  and 
fascinating  personality  of  John  Boyle  O'Reilly,  his 
superb  physique,  his  exquisite  culture,  his  fine  poetic 
sensibility,  his  friendly  cordiality,  his  wit  and  pathos, 
his  impetuous  eloquence,  his  high  soaring  aspirations, 
borne  upward  on  the  two  strong  wings  of  reason 
and  passion,  his  enthusiasm  of  humanity,  his  ro- 
mantic career,  his  sad,  early  death,  made  a  deep 
impression  on  the  minds  and  hearts  of  his  fellow- 
citizens,  which  it  is  the  purpose  of  this  monument, 
the  masterpiece  of  a  worthy  sculptor  and  a  worthy 
architect  laboring  together  in  warm  mutual  sympathy, 
most  honorable  to  American  art,  to  fix  forever  and 
make  permanent  and  enduring  in  the  life  of  our 
beloved  city. 

This  monument  was  no  cold,  late  afterthought. 
Even  as  the  news  of  O'Reilly's  death  spread  from 
man  to  man  in  the  streets  and  was  flushed  to  dis- 
tant places  whither  his  friends  had  been  banished  by 


22  MEMORIAL    OF    JOHN    BOYLE    O'REILLY. 

summer  heats,  the  thought  of  a  memorial  like  this 
mingled  in  a  hundred  minds  with  the  first  access  of 
grief. 

A  committee  of  twenty-four  gladly  undertook,  for 
their  fellow-citizens,  the  task  of  raising  the  funds 
and  making  the  business  arrangements  which  should 
give  effect  to  the  general  wish. 

The  committee  of  which  the  public-spirited  gentle- 
man who  has  just  addressed  you  was,  from  the  first, 
the  moving  force  and  the  directing  will,  have  com- 
pleted their  task,  and  now  give  account  of  their 
stewardship.  The  artists  have  done  their  work  and 
done  it  nobly. 

The  municipality,  proud  of  its  illustrious  poet  and 
patriot,  and  grieving  at  his  loss,  has  laid  these  deep 
foundations  and  built  strongly  up  the  massive  pedes- 
tal. It  only  remains  for  the  appointed  officers  of 
this  day  to  utter  the  words  appropriate  to  the 
occasion  and  to  dedicate  this  monument  to  the  per- 
petual memory  of  John  Boyle  O'Reilly. 

SINGING    OF   AN   O'REILLY    POEM. 

A  choir  of  male  voices  sang,  to  music  of  Fleming, 
O'Reilly's  poem  "Forever." 

"Those  we  love  truly  never,  never  die, 
Though  year  by  year  the  sad  memorial  wreath, 
A  ring  and  flowers,  types  of  life  and  death, 
Are  laid  upon  their  graves. 
Well  blest  is  he  who  has  a  dear  one  dead  : 
A  friend  he  has  whose  face  will  never  change  : 
A  dear  communion  that  will  not  grow  strange ; 
The  anchor  of  a  love  is  death. 


MEMORIAL    SERVICES.  23 

Thank  God,  thank  God,   for  one  dead  friend, 
With  face  still  radiant  with  the  light  of  truth, 
Whose  love  comes  laden  with  the  scent  of  youth. 
Through  twenty  years  of  death." 

Then  followed  the  unveiling  of  the  memorial,  this  in- 
teresting act  being  performed  by  the  poet's  youngest 
daughter,  Blanid  O'Reilly. 

Hon.  Thomas  J.  Gargan  was  then  introduced  to  pre- 
sent the  memorial  to  the  city  of  Boston. 

ADDRESS  OF  HON.  THOMAS  J.  GARGAN. 

Mr.  Gargan  spoke  substantially  as  follows : — 
Mr,  Chairman,  Ladles  and  Gentleman — The  large 
audience  assembled  here  who  have  rested  from  their 
ordinary  labors,  their  faces  aglow  with  love  and 
sympathy,  attest  and  proclaim  by  their  presence  that 
John  Boyle  O'Reilly  did  not  wholly  die.  That 
you  still  cherish  his  memory  and  that  he  holds  an 
affectionate  place  in  your  hearts.  Recalling  those 
beautiful  lines  of  his : 

"True  singers  can  never  die, 

The  singer  who  lived  is  always  alive, 

We  hearken  and  always  here." 

It  seems  but  yesterday  since  he  wralked  the  streets 
of  this  city  which  he  loved  so  well.  Yet  nearly  six 
years  have  passed  since  we  laid  him  at  rest  in 
yonder  rural  cemetery. 

Eloquent  voices  have  many  times  since  spoken  and 
sung  his  praises.  At  a  great  public  meeting  held  in 
this    city,  shortly   after   his   death,    he    was    fittingly 


24  MEMORIAL    OF    JOHN    BOYLE    O'REILLY. 

eulogised,  and  at  that  meeting  it  was  resolved  that 
his  life  and  services  should  be  still  further  com- 
memorated. That  his  fame  should  not  be  entrusted 
to  the  perishable  eloquence  of  the  day,  but  that  he 
should  still  be  with  us  in  a  more  enduring  form  to 
instruct  the  generations  when  all  of  us  shall  be  mute 
and  most  of  us  forgotten. 

As  a  result  of  that  meeting  and  the  subsequent 
efforts  of  his  friends  and  admirers,  representing  every 
walk  of  life,  we  are  assembled  to-day  in  this  beauti- 
ful month  of  June  to  dedicate  a  memorial  to  as 
rare  a  spirit  and  as  loving  and  noble  a  soul  as  ever 
dwelt  in  the  habitations  of  men. 

It  was  my  good  fortune  and  peculiar  privilege  to 
make  his  acquaintance  almost  on  his  arrival  here  in 
Boston;  that  acquaintance  fructified  into  friendship 
and  ripened  into  love. 

There  was  a  fascination  and  magnetism  about  him 
that  no  genuine  man  could  resist,  his  pleasant  voice, 
his  winsome  way.  his  great  kindness,  his  manly 
courage,  the  honesty  of  his  thought  and  his  truthful- 
aess  of  soul  bound  him  to  you  with  hooks  of  steel. 
You  felt  that  through  all  his  life  he  tried  to  make 
men  purer,  wiser  and  better.  Humbolt  says:  "Gov- 
ernments, religion,  property,  books  are  nothing,  but 
the  scaffolding  to  build  a  man,  and  the  finest  fruit 
that  earth  holds  up  to  its  creator  is  a  finished 
man." 

The  great  poet  who  had  written  for  all  man- 
kind puts  these  words  into  the  mouth  of  the  Prince 
of    Denmark,    when    speaking    of    his    royal    father ; 


MEMORIAL    SERVICES.  25 

he  does  not  speak  of  his  exalted  position  or  his 
kingly  prerogatives;  he  says:  "Take  him  for  all 
and  all,  this  was  a  man.  We  ne'er  shall  look 
upon  his  like  again."  S  we  say  as  we  look 
upon  the  counterfeit  presentment  of  John  Boyle 
O'Reilly,  brought  freshly  to  our  mind  by  the 
genius    of    the    sculptor:     "This    was    a    man." 

Born  in  Ireland,  he  so  loved  his  native  land  that 
he  offered  his  mortal  life  as  a  sacrifice  upon  the 
altar  of  her  liberty.  Could  any  man  give  more  ? 
Tried  and  condemned  by  English  law.  he  received 
prison  and  exile.  By  the  intrepidity  of  friends  and 
the  courage  of  Captain  Hathaway,  of  a  New  Bed- 
ford whale  ship,  he  escaped  from  Australia,  landed 
in  the  United  States,  and  from  the  very  day  when 
his  feet  touched  our  shores  he  entered  into  the 
very    life    of   the    nation. 

Devotedly  as  lie  loved  the  land  of  his  birth,  when 
he  became  an  American  citizen  he  was  one  in  every 
fibre  of  his  being;  he  never  claimed  recognition  for 
anything  he  did  or  dared  for  his  native  land.  He 
gave  his  whole  thought,  his  whole  mind,  all  his 
energies  and  his  splendid  talents  for  his  adopted 
country.  One  of  Ids  expressions  was:  "We  can  do 
Ireland  more  good  by  our  Americanism  than  by 
our    Irishism." 

He  was  an  enthusiastic  advocate  of  every  cause 
that  he  believed  would  help  America  and  American 
institutions  ;  as  he  believed  in  the  dignity  of  man- 
hood so  he  labored  for  the  elevation  of  mankind, 
and    he    was    broad    enough    and    catholic    enough    to 


26  MEMORIAL    OF    JOHN    BOYLE    O'REILLY. 

espouse  the  cause  of  all  whom  he  believed  were 
oppressed.  His  was  the  truest  democracy.  He 
knew  neither  caste  nor  color,  nor  creed  nor  nation- 
ality, as  he  believed  in  the  brotherhood  of  man; 
his  great  heart  embraced  in  that  brotherhood  all 
humanity.  What  he  wrote  of  Edmund  Burke  was 
true    of    himself : 

"Races    or    sects    were    to    him    a    profanity: 
Hindoo    or    negro    and    Celt   were    as    one ; 

Large    as    mankind   was    his    splendid    humanity 
Large    in    its    record    the   work    he    has    done." 

We  come  this  day  to  erect  this  memorial,  not 
for  the  dead,  but  for  the  living.  A  monument  which 
in  its  conception  and  design  is  an  exquisite  piece 
of  sculpture  worthy  of  the  genius  of  Daniel  French. 
A  group  that  a  recent  writer  says  will  be  immor- 
tal, and  will  fittingly  adorn  this  entrance  to  our 
public    park. 

We  believe  that  the  feelings  and  memories  here 
evoked  will  inspire  us  to  appreciate  the  lesson 
which   the   life    of   Boyle  O'Reilly   teaches. 

I  beg  leave,  Mr.  Mayor,  on  behalf  of  the  com- 
mittee and  the  thousand  of  subscribers,  to  present 
this  memorial  to  the  City  of  Boston,  through  you, 
its  chief  magistrate,  intrusting  it  to  the  care  and 
protection  of  the  municipality.  It  beautifully  exem- 
plifies the  life  and  attributes  of  O'Reilly  as  a 
man,    a   poet,    a   patriot    and    a     Christian. 

We  offer  this  memorial  to  the  City  of  Boston  in 
the  belief    that  it  will  prove  a  striking  object  lesson. 


MEMORIAL     SERVICES.  27 

We  trust  that  those  who  come  here  to  view  this 
magnificent  creation  of  the  genius  of  the  sculptor 
will  recall  the  life  of  the  Irish  exile,  who  came  to 
this  city  without  friends  or  influence,  with  no  fort- 
une but  his  talents,  yet  by  his  honesty  of  purpose, 
his  manly  courage,  his  untiring  industry  and  indom- 
itable perseverance  entered  into  the  very  heart  and 
life  of  Boston,  winning  for  himself  the  respect  and 
admiration  of  the  cultured  and  holding  a  place  in 
the    hearts    of    all. 

The  life  of  every  man  or  woman  who  has 
achieved  success  or  fame  is  interesting,  and  teaches 
a  lesson.  One  of  the  lessons  that  his  life  teaches 
us  is  that  America  is  a  country  of  boundless  oppor- 
tunities ;  that  the  freedom  Ave  enjoy  is  but  an 
opportunity  to  makes  one's  self  a  good,  a  true,  a 
noble  man  or  woman.  We  hope  that  all  who  come 
here  will  profit  by  the  lesson.  That  the  weary  and 
oppressed  will  feel  their  burden  lightened ;  that  the 
poor  whose  friend  he  was  may  be  comforted ;  that 
the  exile  will  learn  patience  and  depart  hence  with 
new  hope.  That  the  young  and  ambitious  will 
receive  new  inspiration  from  the  story  of  his  life, 
and  I  believe  it  will  make  us  all  better  citizens, 
better  patriots  and  better  men  as  looking  upon  his 
face  turned  to  the  sunlight  of  the  morning  we 
recall  these  opening  lines  from  his  poem  on  the 
Pilgrim    Fathers  : 

"One    righteous    word    for   law  —  the    common   will. 
One    living    rule    of    faith  —  God   regnant    still." 


Lv  MEMORIAL    OF    JOHN    BOYLE    O'REILLY. 

His  Honor  Mayor  Quincy  gave  a  fitting  response  of  accep- 
tance, receiving  it  under  the  perpetual  care  of  the  municipal 
authorities. 

HON.    JOSIAH   QUINCY    RECEIVES    THE    MEMORIAE. 

He  said: 
Mr.  President  tine!  Gentlemen  of  the  Memorial   i 

m  ittee :  — 

The  duty  of  receiving  from  you,  and  accepting  on 
behalf  of  the  City  of  Boston,  this  memorial  of  her 
adopted  son,  John  Boyle  O'Reilly,  is  to  me,  for 
many  reasons,  a  most  agreeable  one. 

In  the  first  place,  you  are  adding  to  the  artistic 
beauty  of  our  city  by  giving  us  a  finer  piece  of  monu- 
mental sculpture  than  any  we  now  possess.  You  offer 
US  not  dead  stone  and  bronze,  but  a  living  work  of  art, 
simple  and  noble  in  conception,  a  fitting  and  appro- 
priate memorial  of  its  subject.  The  progress  of 
American  sculpture  here  exemplified,  the  erection  of 
so  fine  a  monument  at  this  gateway  of  our  beautiful 
park  system  would  give  greater  satisfaction  to  no 
citizen  of  Boston  than  to  O'Reilly  himself,  if  he 
were  with   us   today. 

But  it  is  not  only  or  even  chiefly  because  this  memo- 
rial is  a  work  of  art  that  I  esteem  the  privileg 
accepting  it.  It  was  its  existance  to  the  loving 
remembrance  of  a  man  who  gained  in  a  remarkable 
degree  the  affection,  not  only  of  those  who  came  into 
personal  contact  with  him,  but  of  thousands  who  only 
knew  him  through  his  writings.  It  was  in  no  per- 
functory   spirit    of     rendering    a    deserved     tribute    to 


Th£ 


;//; 


,W 


MEMORIAL    SERVICES. 

departed  talent  or  worth  that  this  monument  was 
conceived,  nor  is  it  in  any  such  spirit  that  it  Lb  now 
dedicated. 

It    needed    no    official    action,    no    appropriation    «>f 
public    money    to    place    with    the    sculptor   the    com- 
rion    which    he    has    now    executed.     The    munici- 
pality of  Boston  was  not  asked  to  give,  onrj 

O'Reilly    belonged   to    the  people,    and  they    fa 
erected    this    monument    to    keep    alive    his    memory. 
Many  who   can  never  look  upon  it.   have  joined  with 
our  citizens  in  the  work  of  perpetuating  his  memory  as 

.  patriot  and  orator.     To  each  and  every  on 
these    subscribers,    and   particularly    to   the  committee 
which  has  had  charge  of   the  work.  I  extend   the  g 
ful  thanks  of  the  city  for  this  line  and  significant 

But  there  is  a  still  deeper  reason  for  a  feeling 
gratification  at  the  erection  of  this  memorial.  Its 
allegorical  character  is  hi  harmony  with  that  of  its 
subject.  The  man  who  is  worthy  of  remenihrance 
after  death  must  have  been  something  more  than  an 
expression  of  personal  character  during  life.  He  must 
have  expressed  some  spirit,  some  idea,  common  to  the 
thought  of  all  mankind.  O'Reilly  was  not  only  a 
man  of  strong  and  marked  individuality,  he  was 
embodiment,  an  expression  of  the  idea  of  human 
brotherhood. 

It  is  that  fact.  I  think,  which  will  lend  future  hit 
to  this   memorial,  after   all  of   us   who   knew   the   man 
have  passed  away.     He  was   a   type   of  the  genus 
a   race    which   has   produced    more   than    its  share 
men  of  genius. 


30  MEMORIAL    OF    JOHN    BOYLE    O'REILLY. 

Iii  his  early  years  a  type  of  the  Irish  patriot,  will- 
ing to  lay  down  his  life  to  right  the  wrongs  of  his 
people,  he  became  as  we  knew  him,  a  typical  Ameri- 
can   citizen,    imbued    with    deep    sympathy    for    our 

institutions  and  all  that  they  stand  for.  understanding 
even  more  deeply  and  fully  than  it  is  given  to  some 
o(  those  who  are  horn  here  io  understand  the  spirit 
and  purpose  of  true  American  democracy. 

Gentlemen  of  the  committee,  on  behalf  o(  the  city 
of  Boston,  I  now  formally  and  gratefully  accept  from 
you,  representing  thousands  of  donors,  this  memorial  of 
the  life,  the  character,  the  genius  of  John  BoYLE 
O'Reilly. 

Through  its  tine  allegorical  figures,  Patri  >tism  and 
poesy,  though  dead,  he  yet  speaketh,  and  will  speak. 
May  it  inspire  those  of  our  people  who  are  united  to 
him  by  ties  o{  blood,  and  have  a  right  to  feel  a  just 
pride  of  race  in  his  career,  with  his  unselfish  devotion 
to  high  ideals. 

May  it  stand  here  as  long  as  our  city  shall  endure 
to  teach  to  all  future  generations  of  its  citizens  the 
lessons  to  be  learned  from  the  life  of  the  proscribed 
exile  who  here  found  freedom  and  won  honor,  the 
typical  Irish  patriot  who  here  became,  lived  and  died 
a   representative  and  patriotic  American. 


MEMORIAL    SERVICES.  31 

Following  the  formal  acceptance  of  the  memorial  by  Mayor 
Quincy,  a  cantata  "To  th(j  Sons  of  Art."  by  Mendelssohn, 
was  sung,  solo  and  chorus  of  male  voices,  accompanied  by 
the  Symphony  orchestra. 

(),  sons  of  Art,  man's  dignity  to  you  is  given  : 

Preserve  it.  man  ! 
It  falls  with  you  ;   with  you  ascends  to  heaven. 

The  hallowed  themes 

Of  Magian  dreams, 
Founded  in  wisdom's  vast  creation. 
Gliding  like  rivers  find  their  ocean  ; 

That  geat  harmonious  plan. 

Preserve  it  man  ! 

Eternal  Truth,  though  oft  rejected, 

Kxists  not  ever  unprotected; 

She  finds  a  refuge  with  the  tuneful  throng, 
She  there  appears  in  all  her  glory, 
Mighty  when  veiled  in  mystic  Btory; 
She  wakes  the  lay  of  lofty  voices, 
And  over  all  her  foes  rejoices  : 

Her  vengeance  flashing  peals  in  song. 

To  your  free  mother  homage  render, 
Boldly  to  gain  her  height  aspire; 

Enthroned  she  dwells  in  radiant  splendor, 

No  other  crown  than  her's  desire. 
While  you  her  thousand  paths  are  tracing, 

Press  onward,  keeping  Truth  in  sight; 
Come,  all  together,  stand  embracing 

Before  the  throne  where  paths  unite  ! 

(Translation  from  Schiller.) 


32  MEMORIAL    OF    JOHN    BOYLE    O'REILLY. 

A  highly  interesting  and  manifestly  popular  episode 
occurred  here,  when  Gen.  Walker  introduced  the  Vice- 
President  of  the  United  States,  Hon.  Adlat  Stevenson, 
who  was  received  with  great  applause.  He  spoke,  in  part, 
as  follows :  — 


In  the  tender  words  of  my  friend,  Patrick  A. 
Collins,  at  the  open  grave  of  John  Boyle 
O'Reilly  :  "  Here  was  a  branded  outcast  some 
twenty  years  ago,  stranded  in  a  strange  land, 
friendless  and  penniless,  to-day  wept  for  all  over 
the  world,  where  men  are  free  or  seeking  to  be 
free ;  for  his  large  heart  went  out  to  all  in 
trouble,  and  his  soul  was  the  soul  of  a  freeman ; 
all  he  had  he  gave  to  humanity,  and  he  asked 
no    return." 

A  nobler  tribute  was  never  paid  by  man  to  his 
fellow.  No  less  a  splendid  tribute  to  the  man  than 
a  eulogium  that  no  words  can  measure  upon  the 
free  institutions  of  his  adopted  country.  To  the 
patriot  exile  America  gave  glad  welcome  to  her 
shores,  and  he  became  one  of  her  most  illustrious 
citizens.  For  all  that  he  received  he  returned  an 
hundred-fold.  His  was,  indeed,  a  noble  soul.  He 
was  the  poet  of  two  continents,  in  its  highest 
sense    the   typical    Irish- American. 

He  pondered  deeply  upon  the  oppressions  of  his 
countrymen,  until  the  memory  of  their  wrongs 
became  a  part  of  the  warp  and  woof  of  his  daily 
life.  Was  it  strange,  then,  that  his  great  heart 
went    out    to    the    humble,    the    victims    of    injustice, 


MEMORIAL    SERVICES.  33 

the    children    of    misfortune   everywhere  ?      He    was, 
indeed   the   evangel  of   the   gospel   of   humanity. 

Strong  men  who  had  never  looked  upon  his  face, 
who  had  never  heard  his  voice,  bowed  their  heads 
and  wept  when  it  was  said  "  John  Boyle  O'Reilly 
is  dead ! "  Not  dead ;  to  such  men  there  is  no 
death  — 

"  To   live   in   hearts   we   leave   behind   is   not   to   die." 

Why  at  such  a  time,  while  yet  in  the  noon  of 
life  and  of  his  fame,  when  there  was  so  much  in 
these  earnest  days  for  his  great  heart  to  feel,  and 
so  much  for  his  willing  hands  to  do,  he  should 
have  been  taken,  it  is  not  ours  to  know.  In  the 
sublime  faith  which  was  his,  in  the  historic  words 
which  were  his,  we  can  only  say  "  God's  holy  will 
be    done." 

In  erecting  this  monument  you  honor  yourselves. 
It  is  well  that  its  approaches  are  firm  and  broad, 
for  thither,  with  the  rolling  centuries,  from  all 
lands  will  come,  as  pilgrims  to  a  shrine,  those  who 
honor  the  memory  of  the  patriot,  the  child  of  song, 
the  lover  of  his  race,  of  all  races,  —  John  Boyle 
O'Reilly. 


34  MEMORIAL    OF    JOHN    BOYLE    O'REILLY. 


JOHN    BOYLE    O  REILLY 

[Written  for  the  Dedication  of  the  Memorial.] 

4w  What  pledge  of  fealty  do  ye  bring, 
Children  of  Erin,  at  the  gate?  " 

He  asked,  and  answered  :     Every  thing- 
Best  for  the  building  of  a  State  — 

Strong  arms  to  delve  for  nature's  wealth 
Stout  hearts  to  bear  what  fate  decrees  ; 

The  poor  man's  heritage  of  health 

And  brains  unspoiled  by  slothful  ease ; 

The  new-born  joy  that  captives  feel, 
Stepping  from  darkness  into  day, 

That  bids  them  face  the  fire  or  steel 
If  life  alone  their  debt  can  pay  — 

All  these,  the  Poet  said,  they  brought, 
Though  scant  indeed  their  worldly  store, 

Naught  saying  (for  he  reckoned  naught) 
Of  that  best  gift  of  all  they  bore  — 

The  Exile  whom  no  chain  could  bind. 

Who  won  his  way  to  freedom's  goal, 
Wearing  no  fetters  on  his  mind, 

No  brand  of  prison  on  his  soul ; 

The  man  of  kindly  word  and  deed, 
Who  suffered  much,  forgiving  all, 

And  questioned  not  of  race  or  creed 
When  duty  rang  the  battle  call. 


JcLoJ 


■*tff~f 


(At-dLtj 


MEMORIAL    SERVICES.  o 

The  walls  of  caste  that  are  so  strong, 
The  chains  of  sect  that  hold  so  well  — 

Built  on  the  adamant  of  wrong, 
Forged  in  the  furnace  fires  of  hell. 

The  insolence  of  birth;  the  pride 

Of  intellect,  God's  unearned  gift 
To  thankless  man  ;  vain  wealth  astride 

Its  beggar  steed,  extolling  thrift  — 

All  these  he  fought,  yet  held  no  hate 

For  any  man,  but  wrong  alone ; 
And  if  this  shaft  proclaim  him  great 

It  is  because  love  raised  the  stone. 

Not  less  he  loved  the  now,  who  saw 

Through  tears  the  sad  old  mother  land  ; 

An  exile's  pencil  best  might  draw 
The  picture  of  the  pilgrim  band. 

And  if  one  ask  for  proof  or  test 

Of  Irish  faith,  we  answer :  Lo ! 
He  is  the  pledge  in  every  breast 

For  all  that  gratitude  can  owe. 

But  let  the  best  of  him  belong- 
To  all  mankind  by  sorrow  tried  — 

The  brother  of  the  lowly  throng, 
The  soldier  of  the  weaker  side. 

James  Jeffrey  Roche. 


36  MEMOKIAL    OF    JOHN    BOYLE    O'REILLY. 

Mrs.  Louise  Chandler  Moulton,  a  poetic  friend  of  the 
deceased,  then  placed  on  the  bust  a  laurel  wreath,  accom- 
panied with  the  following  lines,  printed  on  a  white  satin 
ribbon :  — 

The  past  is  his  ;  the  future  ours, 

And  we  must  learn  and  teach. 

May  our  records  be  like  his  — 

A  glory,  symbolled  in  a  stone. 

Then  followed  the  oration  of  the  day,  which  was  delivered 
by  Rev.  Dr.  Elmer  H.  Capen,  president  of  Tufts  College. 

The  exercises  closed  with  the  singing  of  "  America,"  in 
which  the  audience  joined,  and  benediction  by  very  Rev. 
William  Byrne,  Vicar-General  of  the  Archdiocese  as  follows : 
"  O  God,  the  giver  of  all  good  gifts,  we  thank  Thee  for 
the  endowments  of  patriotism,  knightly  valor,  and  genius, 
which  Thou  didst  bestow  on  Thy  servant,  and  the  servant  of 
humanity,  whose  memory  we  seek  to  perpetuate  by  this 
monument  as  a  tribute  to  his  worth,  a  token  of  our  gratitude, 
and  an  inspiration  to  youth ;  and  we  pray  Thee  to  continue 
to  bless  our  country  with  citizens,  native  and  adopted,  of  like 
heroic  mould  and  sterling  virtue.  We  invoke  a  special 
benediction  on  all  helpers  in  this  work,  and  on  this  assembly. 
Benedictio  Dei"  etc. 


THE    EULOGY 


BY 


REV.   DR.   ELMER    H.    CAPEN 


THE  EULOGY. 


John  Boyle  O'Reilly  was  born  on  June  28,  1844, 
in  Dowth  Castle,  which  is  situated  on  the  South  bank 
of  the  river  Boyne,  in  one  of  the  most  beautiful  and 
historic  spots  in  all  Ireland.  The  very  air  of  the 
place  is  redolent  of  memories  and  tradations,  associ- 
ated alike  with  the  glory  and  the  degradation  of 
the  Green  Island.  On  his  father's  side  he  had  be- 
hind him  a  long  line  of  noble  and  patriotic  ances- 
tors. His  mother  was  of  like  honorable  stock.  His 
childhood  home  was  one  of  refinement  and  culture. 
He  was  well-born,  fulfilling  Dr.  Holmes'  condition  of 
a  liberal  education  which  must  begin  with  one's 
grandfather. 

Indeed,  from  the  earliest  times  the  O'Reillys  had 
been  distinguished  not  only  for  their  princely  blood 
and  high  social  standing,  but  for  their  martial  deeds 
and  devotion  to  their  country.  In  the  later  gener- 
ations they  have  taken  to  quieter  and  more  studious 
ways.  The  father  of  John  Boyle  O'Reilly  was  a 
scholar  and  a  teacher  of  youth.  Dowth  Castle  was 
a  school-house,  and  from  his  very  infancy,  therefore, 
he  was  a  pupil,  with  his  father  for  a  teacher. 
What    wonder     that    with     such     surroundings     and 


40  MEMORIAL    OF    JOHN    BOYLE    O'REILLY. 

under  such  influences  the  quick-witted  youth,  with 
his  ardent  temperament  and  sensitive  nature,  should 
have  imbibed  an  intense  devotion  to  his  native 
land? 

From  the  beginning  he  was  fond  of  out-door  sports 
and  of  natural  scenery.  He  indulged  in  all  the 
rough  and  tumble  of  boyish  life.  He  romped, 
hunted,  fished  and  swam  in  the  Boyne,  thus  laying 
the  foundation  of  that  robust  physical  constitution 
which  stood  him  in  such  stead  in  after  years.  It 
was  the  exuberance  of  his  spirits  that  enabled  him 
to  put  in  that  store  of  health  which  rendered  him 
superior  to  pestilence  and  death  when  others  all 
around  him  were  falling  before  the  insidious  poison 
of  malaria  or  wasting  from  scant  or  unwholesome 
diet.  The  beauty  of  the  landscape  kindled  his 
imagination  and  appealed  to  the  tenderest  sentiments 
of  his  soul.  The  bees,  the  birds,  the  flowers,  the 
fields,  the  running  waters,  the  woods  and  hills  all 
had  a  message  for  him.  Those  scenes  of  his  youth 
seemed  to  be  stamped  upon  his  mind  like  an  inef- 
faceable picture.  The  farther  he  was  removed  from 
them  by  distance,  the  more  remote  from  him  they 
were  in  time,  the  more  vivid  they  became  in  his 
recollection.  There  is  something  poetic  and  yet  sad 
almost  to  heartbreaking  in  that  earnest  request  to 
his  friend,  Father  Conaty,  who  was  visiting  Ireland 
to  see  where  he  was  born.  "It  is  the  loveliest  spot 
in  the  world.  I  have  not  seen  it  for  over  twenty- 
five  years,  but,  oh,  God !  I  would  like  to  see  it 
again.     See  it  for  me,  will  you?" 


THE    EULOGY.  41 

It  may  be  a  question  how  far  external  surround- 
ings contribute  to  the  poetic  faculty  in  men.  Prob- 
ably we  cannot  have  strong  poetic  expression  with- 
out the  poetic  temperament  to  begin  with.  But 
given  that,  the  early  conditions  under  which  the 
mind  is  awakened  and  receives  its  first  bias  are  of 
momentous  importance.  No  one  can  read  critically 
the  writings  of  Mr.  O'Reilly,  either  his  formal  verse 
or  his  prose,  which  is  oftentimes  no  less  poetical 
than  his  verse,  without  feeling  that  the  inspiration 
of  all  is  to  be  found  not  only  in  that  ardent  love  of 
nature  which  was  so  early  developed  in  him,  but  in  those 
scenes  of  surpassing  beauty  which  made  their  lasting 
and  irresistable  appeal  to  his  youthful  imagination. 
Who  that  ever  listened  to  his  passionate  description 
of  his  native  land,  more  beautiful  in  his  conception 
than  any  other  land  under  the  sun ;  her  climate 
tempered  by  ocean  breezes  on  every  side,  her  soil 
fertilized  by  the  clouds  from  the  gulf  stream  which 
break  and  discharge  their  moisture  on  every  hillside 
and  in  every  valley,  making  the  land  green  to  the 
very  tops  of  the  mountains;  her  broad  rivers,  her 
rushing  brooks  and  tumbling  cataracts,  without  feel- 
ing that  it  was  the  boy  in  him  that  was  speaking, 
and  •  giving  vent  to  those  delightful  memories  of 
youth  which  time  can  never  efface. 

His  schooling  ended  when  most  boys  schooling 
begins,  at  eleven  years  of  age.  Perhaps  nothing 
proclaims  more  emphatically  the  quality  of  his  men- 
tal endowment.  Yet  it  must  be  remembered  that  he 
went    out    of    school    in   Dowth    Castle    to    enter   the 


42  MEMORIAL    OF    JOHN    BOYLE    O'REILLY. 

printing  office,  that  university  in  which  so  many 
men  of  commanding  genius,  from  Benjamin  Franklin 
to  Horace  Greeley,  have  received  their  introduction 
to  the  higher  learning.  He  entered  the  employ  of 
the  Drogheda  Argus  as  an  apprentice,  where  he 
remained  four  years.  Owing  to  the  death  of  the 
proprietor,  the  term  of  his  apprenticeship  was  broken. 
From  there  he  went  to  Preston,  England,  where  he 
found  service  on  the  Guardian  of  that  city  for  a 
period  of  three  years. 

The  seven  years  thus  spent  in  the  composing 
room  were  the  quietest  years  of  his  life,  but  from  an 
intellectual  point  of  view  they  were  perhaps  the 
most  profitable.  They  were  years  of  study,  of  pro- 
found reflection  and  of  careful  training  in  the  forms 
of  expression.  They  afforded  him  an  opportunity  to 
become  familiar  with  the  history  of  his  country,  to 
acquire  a  clear  preception  of  the  wrongs  she  had 
suffered,  and  to  be  thrilled  with  the  story  of  the 
patriots  and  heroes  who  in  other  times  had  made  the 
cause  of  Ireland  their  own.  So  that  when  he  was 
summoned  by  his  father  to  his  native  land,  he  was 
not  only  a  man  grown,  robust  and  healthy,  fit  for  any 
kind  of  manly  service,  but  he  had  a  full  intellectual 
equipment,  as  we  are  wont  to  say  of  the  young  college 
graduate,  the  "  complete  and  generous  education,"  as 
Milton  has  so  aptly  phrased  it,  "  which  fits  a  man  to 
perform  justly,  skilfully  and  magnanimously  all  the 
offices,  both  private  and  public,  of  peace  and  war." 

His  return  to  Ireland  marked  a  great  crisis  in  his 
career.     He  went  back  intending  to  take  up  the  work 


THE    EULOGY.  43 

of  journalism,  to  which  he  seems  almost  to  have  been 
predestined,  but  in  reality  to  enter  the  Tenth  Hus- 
sars, a  famous  regiment  of  cavalry,  stationed  then  at 
Drogheda,  but  subsequently  transferred  to  Dublin. 
He  had  all  the  elements  of  a  good  soldier.  He  was 
young,  good  tempered,  ardently  enthusiastic,  intelli- 
gent and  obedient  to  discipline.  He  had  also  a  fine 
physique,  a  handsome  countenance,  and  a  courage 
that  was  absolutely  intrepid.  That  he  did  make  a 
good  soldier  was  the  unanimous  testimony  of  his 
officers  and  comrades.  Probably  there  was  open  to 
him  as  brilliant  an  opportunity  as  could  be  open  to 
any  young  subject  of  the  Queen  enlisting  in  the 
ranks  as  a  private.  He  was  a  subject  of  Great 
Britain.  His  position  as  a  soldier  called  upon  him 
daily  to  salute  the  cross  of  St.  Andrew  and  St.  George. 
Under  that  inspiring  symbol  he  was  ready  to  do 
valiant  service  wherever  the  sword  of  England 
clashed  with  the  sword  of  other  nations.  But  he 
had  also  the  birthright  of  an  Irishman.  Like  many 
a  loyal  subject  of  George  III.  in  America,  a  century 
and  a  quarter  ago,  he  put  the  claims  of  native  land 
above  the  claims  of  England.  He  was  a  disciple  of 
O'Connell  and  Emmet.  The  two  hundred  and  fifty 
years  of  England's  misrule  in  Ireland  had  made  their 
indelible  impress  upon  his  soul.  Wherever  he  went, 
and  whatever  alliance  he  formed,  the  call  of  his 
country  sounded  in  his  ears  with  all  the  sweetness 
and  power  of  a  trumpet,  and  when  she  summoned 
him  he  must  obey,  if  need  be,  with  his  honor  and 
his  life. 


44  MEMORIAL    OF    JOHN    BOYLE    OVKEILLY. 

As  he  entered  the  military  service  in  the  twentieth 
year  of  his  age,  the  great  Fenian  movement,  which 
hail    its    beginning    about    the    year  I860,  and  which 

before  it  had  spent  its  force  shook  the  British  nation 
from  centre  to  circumference,  was  just  coming  to  its 
climax.  Before  the  year  18155  nearly  every  youth  of 
Irish  birth  or  parentage  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic 
had  been  swept  into  this  movement.  Those  who 
were  enlisted  in  the  British  service  formed  no  ex- 
ception. Indeed,  it  was  the  aim  of  the  leade; 
secure  the  alliance  of  the  Irish  contingent  which 
constituted  then  nearly  one-third  of  the  entire  force 
of  the  army.  Their  aim  was  not  merely  t<>  sow  dis- 
affection in  the  ranks  of  the  soldiers,  but  in  the 
armed  conflict  at  which  they  were  aiming,  first  to 
produce  a  great  cleavage  in  the  British  forces  of  one- 
third  or  one-half  of  the  soldierly,  and.  secondly,  to 
obtain  a  body  of  one  hundred  thousand  men.  more 
or  less,  who  had  received  martial  training,  and  who 
might  become  the  nucleus  of  the  army  of  the  Irish 
republic. 

That  John  Boyle  O'Reilly  should  join  this  move- 
ment, when  asked,  was  as  natural  as  that  he  should 
take  a  swim  in  the  river  Boyne  on  a  hot  summer's 
day.  He  joined  it  with  body  and  mind  and  heart 
and  soul.  As  a  boy  climbs  to  some  eminence  in 
order  to  take  a  more  effective  "  header/'  so  he  liter- 
ally plunged  into  the  great  tide  of  Fenianism  and 
committed  himself  absolutely  and  without  reserve  to 
the  current.  I  need  not  rehearse  the  story.  It  is 
known  by  heart.     Fenianism.  like  many  other  efforts 


THE    EULOGY.  45 

for  the  liberation  of  Ireland,  came  to  a  sad  and  in- 
glorious end.  It>  plots  were  exposed,  its  leaders 
arrested,  and  many  of  those  who  had  part  in  it 
were  convicted  of  treason  and  doomed  to  imprison- 
ment or  exile. 

O'Reilly's  turn  came  with  the  rest  and  it  is  need- 
less  to  say  that  he  took  it  as  a  brave  man  should,  in 
the  spirit  of  the  great  Irish  patriots  who  had  served 
as  his  models  of  heroism.  He  knew  when  his  hour 
was  at  hand,  but  he  never  sought  to  evade  the 
responsibility.  By  confession  and  apology  he  might, 
like  many  another,  have  secured  his  liberty.  Indeed, 
the  bribe  was  repeatedly  held  out  to  him,  but  he 
scorned  it,  he  put  it  aside,  as  the  temptation  of  the 
devil.  He  had  done  what  he  had  done,  and  he  was 
neither  ashamed  nor  sorry  for  it.  He  was  Ireland's 
servant,  and  in  her  name  he  was  ready  to  suffer  or 
die. 

In  this  connection,  however.  I  wish  to  say  that  his 
trial  was.  to  my  mind,  a  travesty  of  justice.  It  was 
one  of  those  cases  where  an  accused  person  is  con- 
victed beforehand  in  the  presuppositions  of  the  court. 
No  weakness  in  the  evidence  and  no  defence  which 
the  accused  could  make  was  of  any  avail.  He  was 
convicted  of  treason  and  senteneed  to  death.  The 
sentence  was  immediately  commuted,  however,  to 
twenty  years'   imprisonment. 

What  a  horrible  prospect  was  that  for  a  young 
man  of  twenty-two  !  All  his  young  manhood  blighted  ! 
All  his  youthful  hopes  and  ambitions  cast  to  the 
winds !     He  might  well  have  been  excused  if  he  had 


46  MEMORIAL    OF    JOHN    BOYLE    O'REILLY. 

yielded  to  the  most  wretched  lamentations  of  misan- 
thropy and  despair.  But  he  did  not.  He  preserved 
his  wonderful  buoyancy  of  spirits  in  his  worst  suf- 
ferings, rejoicing  that  he  had  been  transformed  from 
an  "English  soldier"  into  an  "Irish  felon,"  and 
even  expressing  devout  gratitude  to  God  that  he  was 
counted  worthy  of  the  great  and  enduring  fellowship 
of  his  country's  heroes  and  martyrs.  It  was  this 
temper,  doubtless,  which  went  far  to  preserve  his 
health  and  keep  his  faculties  alert  so  that  when  the 
opportunity  of  escape  finally  came  he  did  not  fail. 

He  had  his  taste  of  all  the  different  phases  of 
British  prison  life.  At  Millbank  he  underwent  soli- 
tary confinement  of  several  months,  the  severest  form 
of  punishment  known  to  prison  discipline.  From 
Millbank  he  was  transferred  to  Chatham,  where  he  was 
put  to  work  in  the  prison  brickyards  with  common 
criminals.  For  attempting  to  escape  from  here  he 
was  put  on  bread  and  water  for  a  month  and  then 
removed,  first  to  Portsmouth  and  afterward  to  Dart- 
moor—  Dartmoor,  the  very  name  of  which  awakens 
in  the  American  mind  the  worst  feelings  of  detest- 
ation and  resentment.  How  he  survived  the  harsh 
treatment,  the  terrible  labor,  the  wretched  fare  and 
the  unsanitary  conditions  of  Dartmoor,  which  is  as 
much  a  reproach  to  England  as  ever  the  Bastile  was 
to  France,  or  as  Siberia  is  to  Kussia,  only  God  can 
tell.  Perhaps  because  he  was  reserved  by  God  for 
higher  service  to  the  human  race. 

At  all  events  a  change  came  to  him,  sooner,  no 
doubt,  than  he  had  expected,    which   he  hailed  with 


TIIE    EULOGY.  47 

almost  as  much  joy  as  he  would  have  hailed  a  pro- 
clamation of  freedom.  He  was  one  of  those  who 
had  been  chosen  for  transportation  to  Australia.  It 
was  little  more,  perhaps,  than  the  change  of  one  form 
of  hardship  for  another.  But  it  was  at  all  events  a 
change.  Moreover,  it  gave  room  for  the  indulgence 
of  the  hope  that  somehow  he  would  ere  long  escape 
from  that  hateful  bondage. 

He  was  not  relieved  from  the  hardship  of  prison 
life  in  Australia.  But  somehow  his  good  nature,  the 
rare  charm  of  his  personality,  which  even  his  prison 
garb  could  not  conceal,  won  the  confidence  of  his 
keepers,  and,  notwithstanding  his  repeated  efforts  for 
liberty,  procured  for  him  many  privileges.  These  he 
sought  to  make  use  of  for  the  realization  of  his 
dream.  But  his  progress  was  slow,  and  it  was  only 
after  what  seemed  to  him  an  interminable  waiting 
that  he  fell  in  with  the  good  priest,  Father  McCabe, 
who  promised  to  think  out  for  him  a  way  to  free- 
dom. The  thrilling  story  is  too  long  to  be  told  here 
Suffice  it  say  that  through  Father  McCabe' s  gracious 
instrumentality  and  the  loyal  and  devoted  friends 
whom  he  called  to  his  aid,  the  way  was  found,  not, 
to  be  sure,  without  almost  unutterable  suffering  and 
many  perils  of  the  gravest  sort,  by  which  he  was  at 
last  placed  on  board  an  American  whaler,  and  under 
the  Stars  and  Stripes,  bade  good-bye  forever  to  the 
tyranny  and  woe  of  English  prison  life. 

Of  course,  Englishmen  say  that  John  Boyle 
O'Reilly  was  a  traitor,  that  he  had  joined  and  taken 
the    oath    of   allegiance    to   a  society   which   menaced 


48  MEMORIAL    OF    JOHN    BOYLE    O'REILLY. 

the  integrity  of  the  British  nation,  and  that  he  had 
entered  into  a  conspiracy  to  betray  the  army  in 
whose  ranks  he  was  enrolled.  Therefore  his  punish- 
ment was  merited.  There  are  those  outside  of 
England  who  make  the  same  accusation,  who  main- 
tain not  only  that  his  punishment  was  deserved,  but 
that  in  seeking  to  break  away  from  it  he  was  simply 
adding  to  the  crimes  on  account  of  which  he  was 
justly  held.  This  attitude  may  be  expected  of  an 
Englishman.  It  may  even  be  excused  in  an  advo- 
cate of  monarchical  government  and  an  apologist  of 
despotism.  But  it  is  a  strange  position  for  a  free- 
born  American  citizen  to  assume.  We  say  that  the 
struggle  which  ended  in  the  independence  of  the 
colonies,  and  opened  the  way  for  our  great  and  free 
republic,  was  just  and  holy  in  the  sight  of  God. 
But  in  the  same  sense  that  John  Boyle  O'Reilly  was 
a  traitor,  Sam  Adams  and  John  Hancock  and 
George  Washington  and  Thomas  Jefferson  were 
traitors.  In  the  language  of  Edward  Everett,  "They 
were  rebels,  obnoxious  to  the  fate  of  rebel."  Eng- 
land would  have  decreed  a  worse  punishment  for 
them  if  she  could  have  captured  them  than  she  did 
to  the  young  Irish  Hussar,  whose  love  of  native  land 
transcended  his  allegiance  to  the  Crown  of  England. 
In  the  same  way  that  we  would  have  applauded  the 
escape  of  one  of  our  revolutionary  heroes  from  the 
clutches  of  the  enemy,  we  should  welcome  O'Reilly  flee- 
ing from  the  hardships  of  an  Australian  penal  colony. 
On  the  23d  day  of  November,  1869,  he  landed  in 
Philadelphia.    To  the  ordinary  observer  he  may  have 


THE    EULOGY.  49 

appeared  not  much  different  from  the  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  Irish  immigrants  who  had  preceded 
him  to  these  shores.  But  the  resemblance  was 
scarcely  more  than  superficial.  To  be  sure,  he  was 
Irish,  and  had  in  large  measure  all  the  nobler 
traits  for  which  his  race  is  distinguished.  But  he 
was  also  an  American.  As  Minerva  leaped  full 
grown  from  the  head  of  Jove,  so  he,  in  the  matur- 
ity of  his  powers,  stood  up  for  the  first  time  on 
American  soil  an  American  citizen.  His  first  act 
was  to  take  out  his  preliminary  papers  of  naturaliz- 
ation, and  swear  allegiance  to  that  flag  under  whose 
gracious  folds  he  had  come  from  darkness  to  light. 
It  is  scarcely  an  exaggeration  to  say  that  his  advent 
was  the  grandest  birth  that  took  place  within  the 
limits  of  the  nation  during  the  year  1869.  I  say 
this,  not  merely  because  he  was  a  man  of  extra- 
ordinary intellectual  gifts,  or  because  of  the  contri- 
bution he  has  made  to  American  letters,  but  because 
being  imbued  with  the  true  spirit  of  freedom  and 
humanity,  he  was  an  interpreter  of  American  ideas 
and  a  leader  of  hosts  of  men  toward  the  larger  con- 
ception of  civic  equality  and  spiritual  emancipation, 
in  which  our  beloved  nationality  is  to  find  its  per- 
fection and  glory. 

He  came  to  America  a  stranger.  He  hardly 
suspected  that  there  was  a  living  soul  from  end  to 
end  of  this  broad  land  who  would  take  cognizance 
of  his  coming.  Yet  his  advent  was  heralded  and 
waited  for.  The  story  of  his  escape  had  been  told 
in  Ireland  and  repeated  in  the  American  press.     He 


50  MEMORIAL    OF    JOHN    BOYLE    O'REILLY. 

had  already  won  fame.  Fugitive  pieces  from  his  pen 
had  found  their  way  through  prison  bars,  and  had 
already  caused  him  to  be  designated  as  "the  poet." 
Moreover,  he  had  held  a  conspicuous  place  in  the 
Fenian  struggle,  and  though  Fenianism  had  experi- 
enced nothing  but  disaster,  the  few  in  America  who 
still  ventured  to  call  themselves  Fenians,  remembered 
with  admiration  the  brave  young  soldier  who  had 
dared  and  suffered  so  much  in  that  lost  cause. 
They  received  him  with  cordiality  and  extended  to 
him  such  poor  hospitality  as  they  could  command. 
In  Philadelphia  and  New  York  and  Boston  opportu- 
nity was  given  him  to  recount  his  personal  experi- 
ences, and  tell  the  larger  story  of  the  Irish  political 
prisoners.  So  that  to  his  amazement,  no  doubt,  he 
found  himself  among  friends.  It  was  as  if  the  old 
world  had  journeyed  with  him,  and  enabled  him  to 
find  here  under  other  skies  and  in  very  unfamiliar 
surroundings  the  Ireland  that  he  loved. 

But  the  old  life,  however  delightful  and  attractive, 
was  not  what  he  was  seeking.  He  had  come  hither 
to  begin  a  new  life,  to  become  the  centre  of  a  fresh 
set  of  influences  and  to  carve  out  for  himself  a 
name  and  a  destiny  wholly  disconnected  with  his 
past.  He  took  up  his  abode  in  Boston,  where  a  few 
congenial  spirits  gathered  around  him  and  never 
wavered  in  their  affection  and  devotion  so  long  as 
he  lived.  By  the  same  law  that  in  physics  a  body 
freely  moving  in  space  must  always  go  'in  the 
direction  of  the  least  resistance,  he  gravitated  to 
journalism.     He    found   the   work  for  which   he    was 


THE    EULOGY.  51 

born,  and  the  work  found  the  man  for  whom  work 
always  waits.  From  the  hour  that  he  took  his  seat 
in  the  editorial  chair  of  The  Pilot  he  became  one 
of  the  great  forces  for  the  moulding  of  public 
opinion.  He  wielded  for  twenty  years  an  influence 
scarcely  surpassed  by  any  of  the  great  journalists, 
religious  or  secular,  on  either  side  of  the  ocean. 
Surely  that  were  glory  enough  in  itself.  If  he  had 
done  nothing  else  to  win  the  admiration  of  the 
world  and  compel  the  gratitude  of  mankind,  this 
were  sufficient.  For  this  alone  we  might  well  indulge  in 
imposing  memorial  rites,  inscribe  his  name  on  endur- 
ing bronze  and  place  his  monument  in  the  busy 
streets  of  the  city  in  which  his  task  was  done. 

Journalism,  however,  was  his  vocation.  It  was  the 
profession  by  which  he  earned  his  daily  bread.  But  his 
avocation  was  immensely  greater  than  his  vocation. 
His  varied  gifts  and  accomplishments  could  not  be  con- 
fined to  a  single  channel.  His  genius  was  bound  to 
rise  above  the  banks,  however  high,  and  spread  abroad 
a  vast  and  living  tide  for  the  joy  and  refreshment  of 
mankind.  All  the  world  was  determined  to  taste  the 
qualities  of  his  ripe  and  rare  personality.  This  man, 
who  had  so  recently  worn  the  humiliating  garb  of  a 
prisoner,  was  an  orator,  and  as  soon  as  he  acquired  com- 
mand of  himself  in  the  presence  of  an  audience,  so  that 
he  could  think  logically  on  his  feet,  and  use  his  clear 
and  ringing  voice  with  full  effect,  multitudes  were  im- 
portunate to  hear  the  message  he  had  to  tell.  Before 
vast  audiences  in  every  part  of  the  country,  from  Maine 
to  California,  he  read  his  indictment  of  Great  Britain 


52  MEMORIAL    OF    JOHN    BOYLE    O'REILLY. 

for  her  misrule  and  tyranny  in  Ireland,  or  discoursed  on 
some  literary  theme  with  profound  wisdom  and  entranc- 
ing beauty,  holding  men  spellbound  by  the  power  of  his 
eloquence. 

His  poetic  gift.  also,  of  which  he  had  given  signs  in 
his  imprisonment,  asserted  itself  with  increasing  power 
and  certainty.  As  the  great  questions  which  are  of 
perennial  interest  passed  in  review  before  him,  he  took 
them  up  and  put  in  the  crystalline  form  of  poetic 
phrase  the  truth  which  abides  forever.  Moreover,  his 
spontaneous  enthusiasm,  his  ready  wit,  his  wonderful 
conversational  powers,  his  genial  and  kindly  spirit, 
made  him  not  only  the  welcome,  but  the  indispensable 
guests  at  clubs  and  social  reunions. 

But  all  this,  however  it  may  have  gratified  his  ambi- 
tion and  made  him  feel  that  his  life  had  a  meaning  and 
a  purpose  beyond  the  wildest  imaginings  of  his  youth, 
was  more  than  a  nature  so  finely  strung  could  endure. 
The  best  made  instrument  loses  its  tone  and  quality  by 
constant  striking  of  the  keys,  and  at  last  becomes  fit 
only  for  the  junk  heap.  The  stoutest  anchor  will  in 
time  give  way  before  the  awful  wrench  and  pull  of  an 
ocean  tempest.  The  human  soul  is  a  harp  of  a  thousand 
strings,  but  it  can  be  so  wrought  and  played  upon  that 
by-and-by  its  sweetest  and  most  resonant  chords  will 
cease  to  vibrate.  The  time  comes  when,  in  the  wear 
and  stress  of  a  busy  life,  only  the  hand  of  an  angel  can 
so  sweep  the  strings  of  the  soul  that  it  wTill  give 
forth  the  music  of  the  spheres.  This  was  the  case  with 
John  Boyle  O'Reilly.  His  vitality  was  most  extraordi- 
nary, but  he  made  such  fearful  drafts  upon  it  that  at 


THE    EULOGY.  53 

length  it  was  exhausted.  He  stretched  the  cable  of  his 
life  until  there  was  no  more  elasticity  in  it.  He  poured 
forth  his  nervous  energy  in  so  many  ways  and  in  such 
fulness  that  at  length  it  was  all  gone,  and  "sleep, 
which  knits  up  the  ravelled  sleeve  of  care,"  ceased  to 
visit  his  eyelids.  Then  came  the  end.  Suddenly  and 
unexpectedly,  even  to  his  nearest  friends,  the  cry 
broke  forth,  on  the  still  air  of  the  Christian  Sabbath, 
Aug.  10,  1890,  that  John  Boyle  O'Reilly  was  dead. 
Before  that  sad  cry  men  stopped  and  held  their 
breath,  or  gathered  in  eager  and  silent  groups  around 
the  bulletin  boards,  as  they  were  wont  to  assemble 
in  the  awful  days  of  the  Civil  War,  when  the  news 
of  a  battle  was  posted  before  the  great  newspaper 
offices,  and  scan  witli  wan  faces  the  ominous  list  of 
the  wounded  and  dead.  A  great  personal  and  living 
sorrow  had  all  at  once  come  into  the  life  of  nearly 
every  man,  woman  and  child  in  America.  Even 
beyond  seas  the  hearts  of  the  people  were  wrung. 
A  man  who  bore  no  title,  held  no  office  and  carried 
no  insignia  of  battle  had  fallen  at  his  post  of  duty. 
Yet  there  have  been  kings,  riders  of  high  quality, 
who  have  held  their  office  meekly  and  used  their 
powers  for  the  good  of  their  subjects,  who,  in  their 
death,  have  failed  to  be  honored  by  a  tithe  of  the 
sorrow  that  the  death  of  this  man  of  the  people,  this 
fugitive  from  English  justice,  whose  crime  was  unfor- 
given,  and  who  had  been  denied  the  poor  privilege 
of  standing  beside  his  mother's  grave,  called  forth 
from  multitudes  in  every  land  beneath  the  sun. 
The  mournful  tidings  were    the    signal    for    universal 


54  MEMORIAL    OF   JOHN    BOYLE    O'REILLY. 

grief.  Not  only  did  the  columns  of  the  press  teem 
with  expressions  in  varying  phrases  of  the  people's 
loss,  but  in  many  of  the  chief  cities  of  the  nation 
men,  without  distinction  of  race  or  creed,  gathered 
in  great  companies,  and  eloquent  lips  broke  forth  in 
eulogy.  High  and  low,  rich  and  poor,  scholars 
and  unlettered,  men  vied  with  each  other  in  casting 
their  laurel  wreaths  upon  his  bier  and  dropping  their 
tears  upon  his  sepulchre. 

What  were  the  qualities  in  this  man's  character 
that  gave  him  such  high  distinction  and  brought 
him  such  universal  honor? 

It  is  impossible  to  say  just  how  posterity  will  judge 
him,  or  what  place  he  will  hold  ultimately  among 
the  leaders  and  teachers  of  humanity.  But  there  are 
some  things  on  which  we  can  pronounce  with  cer- 
tainty that  the  judgment  of  the  world  will  not  be 
reversed. 

First  of  all,  his  sincerity  and  gentleness  were  of  the 
rarest  order.  These  were  the  qualities  that  drew  men 
to  him,  and  held  them,  just  as  the  particles  of  steel 
are  drawn  and  held  by  the  magnet.  His  soul  was 
absolutely  transparent  and  without  guile.  He  had  all 
the  simplicity,  spontaneity  and  genuineness  of  a  child. 
When  he  opened  his  mind  on  any  subject  the  con- 
viction was  irresistible  that  he  spoke  the  truth  —  at 
least  as  he  saw  it  —  the  whole  truth  and  nothing 
but  the  truth.  He  wore  his  heart  upon  his  sleeve. 
He  had  no  concealments  and  no  duplicity.  His  wis- 
dom was  not  of  the  self-conscious  sort,  which  puffs 
and    struts    and    vaunts    itself    before    men.     Every- 


THE    EULOGY.  55 

where  he  was  the  Christian  gentleman,  and  his  wis- 
dom, therefore,  was  of  that  refined  and  heavenly 
sort,  which  an  apostle  has  described  as,  "First,  pure, 
then  peaceable,  gentle  and  easy  to  be  entreated,  full 
of  mercy  and  good  fruits,  without  partiality  and  with- 
out hypocrisy."  A  man  so  endowed  cannot  go 
through  the  world  without  having  troops  of  friends. 
They  will  rise  up  around  him  as  soldiers  gather  in 
battle  around  a  beloved  leader.  They  will  give  him 
an  unstinted  affection,  and  when  he  raises  his  stand- 
ard and  sounds  the  advance  they  will  follow  wher- 
ever he  leads  the  way,  even  though  it  be  into  the 
jaws  of  death. 

But  he  had  many  charms  of  the  more  subtile  sort. 
His  culture  was  of  an  all-round  character.  More 
than  any  man  of  modern  times,  so  far  as  I  know, 
he  reproduced  the  old  Greek  life.  In  the  Olympic 
games,  the  runner,  the  boxer  and  the  charioteer,  the 
reciter  of  history,  the  orator  and  the  poet  received 
alike  the  laurel  wreath  of  victory;  and  the  same 
person  might  take  part  in  every  contest.  O'Reilly 
was  equally  at  home  in  whatever  effort  called  forth 
the  best  in  men.  He  was  an  expert  in  all  manly 
sports.  His  muscle  and  his  eye  had  been  trained  as 
well  as  his  brain.  But  he  also  excelled  in  the  crea- 
tions of  the  mind.  He  was  a  master  of  speech,  and 
could  sway  an  audience  as  with  a  magician's  wand. 
In  presiding  at  a  literary  festival  his  brilliancy  was 
the  delight  and  wonder  of  his  friends.  He  could 
give  clear  utterance  to  profound  truth,  and  could, 
when  occasion  required,  rise  with  the  sure,  firm  flight 


56  MEMORIAL    OF   JOHN    BOYLE    O'REILLY. 

of  an  eagle  into  the  empyrean  of  poetic  vision. 
With  such  many-sided  gifts  it  was  inevitable  that  he 
should  be  a  subject  of  curiosity  and  admiration. 
The  witty,  the  learned  and  the  gay  would  surely 
desire  to  bask  in  the  sunlight  of  his  genius.  The 
men  of  heavier  mould,  but  who  were  ambitious  of 
the  intellectual  life,  would  seek  for  reenforcement 
and  inspiration  from  his  keen  and  superabounding 
intelligence;  and  those  who  dwelt  on  the  plane  of 
humble  and  ordinary  life  waited  for  him  to  lift 
them  by  his  more  than  common  strength  to  the 
mountain  tops  of  boundless  prospect  and  heavenly 
glory. 

Of  his  place  in  letters  it  is  too  early  to  speak  with 
certainty.  Undoubtedly  his  culture  missed  the  refined 
quality  that  is  apparent  in  Lowell  and  Longfellow, 
or  in  Moore  and  Shelley.  His  schooling  was  too 
brief  and  terminated  too  early  to  secure  for  him  the 
exquisite  finish  which  nothing  but  schooling  can 
give.  It  is  clear  that  he  had  not  studied  the  great 
poetical  canons,  or,  if  he  had  studied  them,  he  was 
unable  to  bring  his  muse  completely  under  their  con- 
trol. Hence  the  critics  will  tell  us  that  his  verse 
was  crude.  Without  question  they  are  right.  But 
the  crudeness,  which  was  most  apparent  in  his  earlier 
work,  was  gradually  giving  way,  and  little  by  little 
he  was  acquiring  the  sure  and  strong  mastery  of  his 
lyre.  But  whatever  may  be  said  of  the  roughness 
of  his  execution,  and  of  his  failure  to  meet  the 
demands  of  conventional  standards,  no  one  will  deny 
that  he    had    in    fullest    measure    and    highest  degree 


THE    EULOGY.  57 

the  poetic  fire.  None,  not  even  the  greatest  poets, 
have  given  more  unmistakable  evidence  of  ability  to 
touch  the  very  heart  of  truth,  which  is  the  poet's 
first  and  highest  function,  or  have  had  a  more  com- 
manding conviction  of  the  undying  reality  of  the 
ideal  realm  in  which  poets  live  and  move  and  have 
their  poetic  being.  Moreover,  his  hand  swept  all 
chords,  from  the  fanciful  and  tender  to  the  majestic 
and  sublime.  In  the  very  nature  of  things,  therefore, 
not  only  must  his  poetry  make  its  appeal  to  the 
universal  heart  of  man,  but  it  will  constitute  a  mine 
in  which  future  poets,  so  long  as  poetry  is  studied, 
must  delve  for  the  virgin  ore  of  poetic  truth. 

But  in  studying  this  man's  life,  I  think  I  have 
discovered  other  and  higher  qualities  than  any  I  have 
yet  named.  He  had  an  unmistakable  power  of  lead- 
ership. He  seemed  to  feel  that  it  was  his  province 
to  go  before  and  blaze  the  way.  As  a  journalist  he 
strove  to  be  in  advance  of  his  constituency.  There 
are  two  kinds  of  journalism ;  one  throws  itself  on 
the  great  current  of  public  opinion  and  is  borne 
along  with  it,  never  seeking  to  do  more  than  voice 
the  sentiments  of  the  people  to  whom  it  appeals  for 
support;  the  other  strikes  out  into  new  ways,  and 
creates  the  channel  in  which  public  opinion  must 
flow,  and  sets  up  for  the  people  the  indubitable  and 
inexorable  moral  imperative  which  their  situation 
and  surroundings  have  evoked.  Boyle  O'Reilly 
belonged  to  the  latter  class  of  journalists  as  clearly 
as  Horace  Greeley  or  Lyman  Abbott.  He  did  not 
ask   his    great    clientele  what    they  thought    or  what 


58  MEMORIAL    OF    JOn^    BOYLE    O'REILLY. 

they  wanted.  He  proceeded  at  once,  and  without 
equivocation  or  apology,  to  tell  them  what  they 
ought  to  think  and  how  they  ought  to  behave.  He 
startled  Irishmen  by  telling  them  that  here  they  were 
no  longer  Irishmen  —  except  by  blood  and  memory 
and  tradition  —  they  were  American  citizens.  He 
even  deprecated  the  display  of  the  green  flag  in  pro- 
cessions and  on  festival  occasions,  because  so  long  as 
the  Irish  patriot  did  that,  he  would  give  excuse  to 
the  Orangeman  to  hang  out  the  symbol  which  stirs 
the  deepest  resentment  in  the  Irish  heart.  That 
ancient  feud  had  no  ground  for  continuance  in 
America.  Here  there  should  be  no  line  of  cleavage 
between  Catholics  and  Protestants,  or  between  Orange- 
men and  the  disciples  of  O'Connell.  Here  all  branches 
of  the  Irish  race  were  blended  and  fused  together  in 
the  fervent  heat  of  American  equality.  They  should 
march  shoulder  to  shoulder,  therefore,  in  demonstra- 
tion of  joy  for  their  emancipation.  They  should  join 
hands  and  work  together  with  all  their  might  to 
strengthen  the  institutions  and  make  more  solid  and 
enduring  the  underlying  principles  of  this  mighty 
and  beneficent  republic. 

This  way  of  leadership,  let  me  say,  upon  which 
he  entered  with  bold  and  unfaltering  tread,  swept 
him  forward  to  sentiments  of  the  loftiest  patriotism 
and  the  broadest  humanity.  He  was  something  of  a 
partisan  and  had  his  party  affiliations  as  most  men 
do.  He  knew  how  to  give  and  take  blows  in  behalf 
of  party,  and  could  rejoice  in  a  well-won  victory  as 
heartily    as    anybody.     But    if    a    question    was    pre- 


THE    EULOGY.  59 

sented  which  involved  the  welfare  and  honor  of  the 
country,  his  mind  rose  instantly  above  all  partisan 
considerations.  Indeed,  in  the  discussion  of  the  funda- 
mental principles  of  administration  or  government, 
he  was  unconscious  of  his  political  creed.  I  have 
heard  him  myself  by  more  than  an  hour  at  a 
stretch  indulge  in  the  most  scathing  denunciation  of 
that  wretched  English  policy  that  had  made  com- 
merce an  impossibility  for  Ireland,  destroyed  her 
manufactures,  unchained  her  waterfalls,  obliterated 
industries,  and  even  tried  to  cover  her  fertile  acres 
with  desolation,  without  seeming  to  see  in  it  the 
slightest  reflection  upon  any  shibboleth  he  had  ever 
uttered. 

Nay,  when  the  inherent  and  inalienable  rights  of 
man  was  the  issue,  he  left  all  parties  behind  him 
and  took  his  stand  beside  Wendell  Phillips,  the  great 
iconoclast  and  reformer.  No  singer  "the  wide  world 
round"  has  ever  sung  in  clearer  accents  or  more  fer- 
vent spirit  the  great  song  of  humanity  than  he  — 
that  our  brotherhood  is  one,  and  thus  transcends  all 
limits  of  nationality  or  race;  that  manhood  does  not 
depend  upon  complexion,  but  is  a  principle  of  the 
blood  that  runs  in  all  our  veins.  In  short,  that 
"God  has  made  of  one  blood  all  nations  of  men  to 
dwell  on  all  the  face  of  the  earth." 


O    blood    of    the    people !     Changeless    tide,    through    century, 

creed    and    race  ! 
Still    one    as    the    salt    sea    is    one,    though    tempered    by    sun 

and    place ; 


60  MEMORIAL    OF   JOHN    BOYLE    O'REILLY. 

The  same  in  the  ocean  currents  and  the  same  in  the  shel- 
tered   seas; 

Forever  the  fountain  of  common  hopes  and  kindly  sympa- 
thies. 

Indian  and  negro,  Saxon  and  Celt,  Teuton  and  Latin  and 
Gaul  — 

Mere  surface  shadow  and  sunshine,  while  the  sounding  uni- 
fies   all ! 

One  love,  one  hope,  one  duty  theirs  !  No  matter  the  time 
or   ken, 

There  never  was  separate  heart-beat  in  all  the  races  of 
men ! 


But  no  account  of  John  Boyle  O'Reilly  would  be 
complete  that  failed  to  recognize  his  religious  char- 
acter. In  this  he  occupied  a  peculiar  place  among 
literary  men  in  an  age  that  is  sometimes  called 
agnostic  and  irreverent.  His  religion  was  an  ever 
present  reality,  pervading  his  whole  being,  not  as  is 
often  the  case,  even  with  church  members,  some- 
thing to  be  kept  in  the  background  of  one's  life 
and  to  be  apologised  for  to  his  friends.  Wherever 
he-  went,  he  walked,  consciously  and  with  reverent 
steps  in  the  great  temple  of  the  ever-living  and 
omnipresent  God.  The  spiritual  element  of  the 
universe  no  more  needed  demonstration  than  the  air 
or  the  sunlight.  His  faith  was  so  lofty  and  clear 
that  he  could  affirm  with  St.  Paul,  "  The  things 
which  are  seen  are  temporal ;  but  the  things  which 
are  not  seen  are  eternal."  With  every  fibre  of  his 
being  he  was  a  Roman  Catholic.  Why  should  he 
not   be  ?     Not   only  was   he   born  and   reared   in  the 


THE    EULOGY.  61 

Catholic  Church,  so  that  her  traditions  and  history 
were  interwoven  with  every  thread  of  his  conscious 
being,  but  she  touched  him  gently  and  with  irresist- 
ible force  on  the  better  and  more  sensitive  side  of 
his  nature  by  her  artistic  creations,  her  stately  and 
gorgeous  ritual,  her  noble  and  devoted  priesthood, 
her  orderly  and  powerful  administration,  her  count- 
less and  inexhaustible  philanthropies,  her  vast  and 
world-wide  fellowship  and  communion,  and  her  clear 
and  unwavering  answer  to  all  the  deeper  questions 
of   the    soul. 

Yet  I  am  constrained  to  say  that  he  was  more 
than  a  Catholic.  No  single  name,  however  venera- 
ble and  comprehensive;  no  label,  however  broadly 
and  carefully  phrased,  could  adequately  describe  that 
subtile  and  elastic  quality  of  soul  which  we  call  his 
religion.  By  a  strange  and  unerring  instinct  his 
mind,  with  the  swiftness  of  light,  seized  the  inher- 
ent and  essential  truth  which  forever  defines  the  rela- 
tion between  the  human  soul  and  God.  He  saw  that 
the  quality  of  men's  faith  is  not  determined  by  the 
form  in  which  it  is  expressed.  Oh,  how  he  tried -to 
overcome  and  destroy  the  false  issue  which  for- a  quar- 
ter of  a  millennium  England  had  been  trying  to 
raise  between  Protestants  and  Catholics  in  Ireland ! 
Living  in  constant  daily  fellowship  with  the  sons  of 
Pilgrims  and  Puritans  —  men  who  came  hither 
hating  the  Papacy  as  the  instrument  of  Satan  — 
he  saw  the  serenity  and  beauty  of  their  piety,  and 
that  they  were  the  very  elect  of  God  for  the  more 
perfect   establishment    of    His    kingdom   among   men. 


62  MEMORIAL    OF    JOHN    BOYLE    O'REILLY. 

Not  even  Longfellow  could  more  truly  say  than 
he   that 

God    had    sifted    three    kingdoms    to    find    the   wheat    for   this 

planting, 
And    then    had    sifted    the   wheat    as    the    living    seed    of    the 

nation. 

He  perceived  that  there  is  more  than  one  way 
into  the  heavenly  presence.  The  poor  heathen  mother 
pressing  her  babe  for  a  moment  to  her  breast  in 
agonized  affection  before  she  casts  it  to  the  croco- 
diles to  appease  the  vengeance  of  her  deity,  the 
minister  of  a  Protestant  conventicle  preaching  in 
harsh  and  strident  tones  a  divisive  gospel,  and 
the  indifferent,  yet  gently  charitable  sceptic,  can  all 
present  an  offering  that 

May  rise 

To  heaven  and  find  acceptance  there. 

no  less  than  he  whose  petition  is  borne  upward  on 
clouds  of  incense  that  float  from  censers  swung  by 
priestly  hands  before  cathedral  altars.  This  clear- 
eyed,  tender,  transcendent  and  all-comprehending 
faith  was  the  solvent  in  which  provincialism,  preju- 
dice, bigotry  and  vindictiveness  vanished  utterly  and 
forever. 

Such  in  my  poor  and  fragmentary  speech  was  the 
man  whose  monument  we  have  reared  —  the  broad- 
est-minded and  most  accomplished  Irishman  since 
Edmund  Burke,  one  of  the  few  rare  and  transparent 
souls  to  whom  out  of  all  the  races,  the  last   half  of 


THE    EULOGY.  63 

the  nineteenth  century  has  decreed  an  immortality  of 
fame.  We  place  him  here  in  our  great  Valhalla. 
The  venerable  Puritan  founders  of  this  glorious  Com- 
monwealth, the  mighty  leaders  of  the  revolutionary 
epoch,  the  soldiers  whose  blood  moistened  and  ren- 
dered sacred  forever  the  soil  of  Bunker  Hill,  the 
matchless  orators  and  heroes  of  the  anti-slavery  re- 
form, the  nameless  hosts  who  with  the  first  echoes 
of  Sumter's  guns  grasped  their  muskets,  and  marched 
to  the  defence  of  the  republic,  must  all  lie  a  little 
closer  in  their  graves  to  make  room  for  this  lover  of 
mankind. 

Here  we  set  his  memorial  in  the  public  square, 
embellished  with  all  the  grace  and  beauty  that  art 
can  bestow.  Let  those  who  go  swarming  past  it 
day  after  day,  fleeing  from  the  dust  and  turmoil  of 
the  city,  seeking  the  fields  and  woods  beyond,  turn 
their  eyes  hither,  and  recall  the  happy-hearted,  sunny 
soul,  to  whom  the  song  of  birds  and  the  voice  of 
running  waters  were  ever  like  angels'  voices  speaking 
of  paradise.  Let  the  disheartened  reformer  pause 
here  for  a  moment  and  hear  him  say,  as  it  were  out 
of  the  open  heavens :  — 

I  know 
That  when  God  gives  us  the  clearest  light, 
He  does  not  touch  our  eyes  with  love,  but  sorrow. 

Let  the  hunted  fugitive,  speaking  in  an  alien 
tongue,  or  our  English  speech  with  an  alien  accent, 
set  down  his  knapsack  beside  these  stones,  and,  re- 
membering the  welcome  which  America  gave  to    this 


64  MEMORIAL    OF    JOHN    BOYLE    O'REILLY. 

stranger,  be  assured  that  here  there  is  room  for 
honest  work  and  patriotic  effort  whether  men  are 
native  to  the  soil  or  foreign  born.  Let  him  who 
would  serve  his  country  by  pen,  or  speech,  or  sword, 
look  at  these  symbols  in  bronze,  and  find  his  patri- 
otism renewed.  Let  the  children  of  the  poor,  as  they 
behold  this  monument,  be  reminded  that  it  is  neither 
wealth  nor  station  but  honorable  service  that  secures 
for  men  under  the  Stars  and  Stripes  affection  and 
renown.  Let  the  high-bred  youth  of  the  great  city, 
who  may  be  tempted  to  regard  with  scorn  the  poor 
and  lowly,  pause  and  listen  before  this  noble  pile, 
and  he  will  learn  the  lesson  which  the  rich  must 
learn  for  safety  :  — 

That  the  bluest  blood  is  putrid  blood 
That  the  peoples  blood  is  red. 


PROMINENT   PEOPLE   PRESENT 


PROMINENT  PEOPLE  PRESENT. 


Among  the  prominent  people  present  were  the  following  :■ 


Vice-President  and  Mrs.  Adlai 
Stevenson,  son  and  daughter. 

Most  Rev.  John  J.  Williams. 

Gov.  Roger  Wolcott. 

Adjutant-General  Dalton. 

Col.  Peter  Corr. 

Colonel  Page. 

Ex-Gov.  J.  Q.  A.  Brackett. 

Mayor  Josiah  Quincy. 

Hon.  George  P.  Lawrence,  Presi- 
dent of  the  Senate. 

lion.  George  V.  L.  Meyer,  Speaker 
of  the  Ilouee. 

Sen.  Joseph  J.  Corbett. 

Sen.  Charles  F.  Sprague. 

Sen.  Martin  M.  Lomasney. 

Sen.  William  II.  Cook. 

Sen.  Richard  Sullivan. 

Rep.  Daniel  D.  Rourke. 

Rep.  James  J.  Myers. 

Rep.  David  F.  Slade. 

Rep.  Walter  L.  Bouve. 

Rep.  James  A.  Cochran. 

Rep.  George  F.  Coleman. 

Rep.  Albert  C.  Smith. 

Rep.  Timothy  J.  Donovan. 

Rep.  John  II.  Ponce. 

Rep.  George  S.  Evans. 

John  G.  B.  Adams,  Massachusetts 
Legislature. 

Mrs.  John  Boyle  O'Reilly  and  the 
Misses  O'Reilly. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  A.  Shuman. 

Miss  Lillian  Shuman. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Alexander  Steinhert. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  I.  Ratshesky. 

Mrs.  Louise  Chandler  Moulton, 


lion.  John  II.  Lee,  Chairman  Board 
of  Aldermen. 

Aid.  Horace  G.  Allen. 

Aid.  David  F.  Barry. 

Aid.  Chas.  II.  Bryant. 

Aid.  John  J.  Mahoney. 

Aid.  Chas.  E.  Folsom. 

Aid.  W.  J.  Donovan. 

Aid.  Perlie  A.  Dyar. 

Aid.  W.  F.  Donovan. 

Aid.  Salem  D.  Charles. 

Aid.  Board  man  Hall. 

Aid.  E.  W.  Presho. 

Pres.  Joseph  A.  Conry,  of  the 
Common  Council. 

Coun.  James  A.  Doherty. 

Coun.  Sidney  Moulthrop. 

Coun.  M.  T.  Callahan. 

Coun.  John  J.  O'Callaghan. 

Coun.  Stanley  Ruffin. 

Rt.  Rev.  William  Lawrence,  D.D. 

Mr.  Thomas  Bailey  Aldrich. 

President  Andrews,  Brown  Uni- 
versity. 

Hon.  Nathan  Matthews,  Jr. 

Hon.  Frederick  O.  Prince. 

Hon.  Thos.  X.  Hart. 

Hon.  Frederick  W.  Lincoln. 

Gen.  A.  P.  Martin. 

Hon.  Patrick  Maguire. 

Hon.  P.  J.  Kennedy. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Alfred  T.  Waite. 

Commodore  and  Mrs.  Miller,  LT. 
S.N. 

Captain  and  Mrs.  Phillips,  U.  S.  N. 

Captain  and  Mrs.  Lowe,  U.  S.  N. 

Captain  and  Mrs.  Potts,  U.  S,  N. 


08 


MEMORIAL    OF    JOHN    BOYLE    O'REILLY. 


Captain  and  Mrs.  Harrington,  U. 
S.  N. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  George  Parsons  La- 
tlirop. 

Mayor  McGuiness  of  Providence. 

Hon.  C.  E.  Gorman,  Providence. 

Hon.  and  Mrs.  W.  R.  Grace,  New 
York. 

Mrs.  Jnlia  Ward  Howe. 

Edward  W.  McGlenen. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Harry  McGlenen. 

Hon.  Winslow  Warren. 

Capt.  John  ('  Wyman. 

Hon.  and  Mrs.  W.  A.  Bancroft  of 
Cambridge. 

Rev.  Charles  Fleischer. 

Rev.  and  Mrs.  M.  J.  Savage. 

Rev.  and  Mrs.  E.  A.  llortou. 

Rev.  Edward  Everett  Hale. 

Abbe  Hogan,  Catholic  Seminary, 
Brighton. 

Very  Rev.  William  Byrne,  D.D. 

Rt.  Rev.  Bishop  Healyof  Portland. 

Rt.  Rev.  Bishop  Bradley  of  Man- 
chester. 

lit.  Rev.  Bishop  Tierney  of  Hart- 
ford. 

Rt.  Rev.  Bishop  Hennessey  of  Kan- 
sas. 

Rev.  P.  P.  Murphy  of  Saxonville. 

Rev.  T.  A.  Brosnahan,  president  of 
Boston  College. 

Miss  Sarah  Orne  Jewett. 

Mrs.  James  T.  Fi'elds. 

Mr.  Penjamin  Kimball. 

Mr.  Robert  A.  Boit. 

Mr.  Arlo  Bates. 

Hon.  A.  W.  Beard. 

Gen.  and  Mrs.  Francis  A.  Walker. 

Gen.  Chas.  H.  Taylor. 

Col.  Robert  F.  Clark. 

Mr.  James  Jeffrey  Roche  and  Miss 
Roche. 

Mr.  and  Mrs    Henry  M.  Rogers. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  T.  B.  Fitzpatrick. 

Dr.  and  Mrs.  J.  A.  McDonald  and 
Miss  Annie  McDonald. 

Hon.  Charles  Levi  Woodbury. 

Hon.  T.  J.  Gargan. 

Mr.  George  F.  Babbitt. 


Rev.  Richard  Xeagle,  Chancellor. 

Hon.  Edward  A  Moseley. 

Hon.  John  W.  Corcoran. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  M.  (lough. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  P.  J.  Donovan. 

Hon.  and  Mrs.  J.  H.  OXeil. 

Hon.  and  Mrs.  John  R.  Murphy. 

Col.  J.  W.  Coveney. 

President  and  Mrs.  (a  pen  and  Miss 
Capen. 

Mr.  Elmer  Capen.  Jr. 

Judge  Robert  Grant. 

William  Lloyd  Garrison. 

Ex-Lieut. -Gov.  Haile. 

Mrs.  Harriet  Prescott  Spofford. 

Mr.  Alexander  P.  Brown. 

Prof.  J.  J.  Hayes  Harvard  Uni- 
versity. 

Mrs.  Alice  Kent  Robertson. 

Mr.  George  B.  Neal. 

Miss  Caro  Neal. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  John  P.  Alley. 

Capt.  and  Mrs.  Henry  C.  Hatha- 
way. 

Mrs.  Anna  Eichberg  King. 

Mr.  and  Mis.  E.  A.  Grozier. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  E.  II.  Clement. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  John  Bannigan  of 
Providence. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  William  J.  Quinn. 

Dr.  G.  W.  Cheever. 

Mrs   John  B.  Fallon. 

Mr.  James  S.  Murphy. 

Hon.  John  C.  Ropes. 

Mrs.  Lydia  Baker  Taft. 

Judge  E.  G.  Walker. 

Mr.  George  T.  Downing. 

Mrs.  Clara  E.  C.  Wai 

.Mrs.  Edwin  P.  Whipple, 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  William  Carleton. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Henry  Upham. 

Judge  and  Mrs.  Fallon. 

Mr.  John  E.  Barrett,  editor  Scran- 
ton  Truth,  Scranton,  Pa. 

Col.  F.  B.  Bogan. 

Lieut. -Col.  and  Mrs.  L.  J.  Logan. 

Gen.  and  Mrs.  Benjamin  Bridges. 

Capt.  Lawrence  Cain. 

Mr.  Edward  ()* Meagher,  Condon, 
Xew  York. 


NOTABLE    PERSONS    IMiESEXT. 


09 


Miss  Kathcrine  E.  Conway. 

Mgr.  Bernard  O'Reilly,  Xew  York. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  George  H.  Conley. 

Miss  Josephine  Jenkins. 

Mr.  Ben  Woolf. 

Miss  Marion  Donovan. 

Mr.  John  P.  Brawley. 

Mr.  Thomas  II.  Devlin. 

Mr.  John  J.  Teevans. 

Dr.  Larkin  Dunton. 

Mr.  John  O.  Xorris. 

Mis.  Mary  L.  Livermore. 

Mr.  Patrick  Donahoe. 

Mr.  William  Doogue. 

Hon.  John  Reade. 

Hon.  E.  J.  Donovan. 

Rev.  James  A.  Doonan,  S.J. 

Mr.  Edward  C.  Ellis. 

Col.  John  R.  Earrell. 

Rev.  P.  J.  Garrigan,  Catholic  Uni- 
versity. Washington. 

Hon.  and  Mrs.  George  H.  Gam- 
mans. 

Mr.  Richard  Watson  Gilder,  New 
York. 

Mgr.  Magennis,  Jamaica  Plain. 


Mr.  and  Mrs.  J.  Mitchell  Gal V in. 

Mr.  Arthur  T.  Gilman,  Radcliffe 
College. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  J.  H.  Hecht. 

Miss  Georgia  Hamlin. 

Hon.  Paul  H.  Kendricken. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  I.  Kaffenberg. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Samuel  J.  Kitson. 

Col.  John  ('.  Linehan,  Concord, 
\.  H. 

The  Misses  McMahon. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  John  F.  Eerguson. 

Mr.  Henry  L.  Xelson,  editor  Har- 
per's Weekly 

Adjt.  Joseph  Kelley. 

Maj.  M.  J.  O'Connell. 

Gen.  James  R.  O'Berine,  New 
York. 

Mr.  A.  C.  Carpenter,  Boston  Ad- 
vertiser. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Samuel  Shuman. 

Mr.  H.  Staples  Potter. 

Hon.  Edward  J.  Slattery. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Eugene  Tomkins. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Jean  Paul  Selinger. 


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